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This bill may
create additional costs for school entities, including school administrative
units, in the course of conducting investigations into alleged employee
conduct that endangers the health, safety, or welfare of a student. School
entities will be required to place any employee under investigation on paid
leave, which may increase costs for substitute teachers or other coverage.
School entities will also be required to complete all investigations, even if
the subject of the investigation leaves the employment of the school.
Currently, school entities do not necessarily complete investigations when
the subject leaves the school, and so requiring all investigations to be
completed may require additional resources of school entities. The bill also expands
the scope of and procedures required for a "covered investigation,"
which may increase the number of investigations that schools are required to
complete and therefore require additional expenditures by school
administrative units.
While the total number of investigations carried out by schools in a year
is not known, the Department of Education (department) is notified of
approximately 20 to 50 investigations per year, including those
investigations which are not completed, and there are approximately 250
school administrative units in the State. Therefore, this fiscal note assumes
that the number of additional investigations that will need to be completed
by any single school administrative unit in a given year is likely to be very
low. Any additional costs to the Department of Education to implement the
provisions of this bill are expected to be minor and can be absorbed within
existing budgeted resources. |