Report 2016-103 Recommendation 1 Responses

Report 2016-103: Los Angeles Unified School District: It Can Do More to Reduce the Impacts of Removing Teachers From Classrooms Because of Alleged Misconduct (Release Date: October 2016)

Recommendation #1 To: Los Angeles Unified School District

To ensure that LAUSD is adequately monitoring compliance with key time frames of its reassignment policy, by April 2017 it should begin using its new database to report on how long reassignments have taken to move through the various steps in its policy or begin reporting on all key time frames by another means. LAUSD should also establish procedures to periodically monitor each key decision point throughout the reassignment process to ensure that responsible parties meet the time frames it has set for resolving teacher reassignments.

6-Month Agency Response

CRM/CASE went "live" on March 27, 2017. The system tracks all reassigned employees. As of March 24, 2017 the former system IRSD has read-only access for all users. Employees are being trained to use the new system and information continues to be entered at this time.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

LAUSD's CASE database is capable of reporting on how long reassignments have taken to move through the various steps in LAUSD's reassignment policy. LAUSD informed us that CASE also automatically generates alerts for current teacher reassignments that are approaching one of the steps' deadlines, and these alerts are sent to both LAUSD's administrative oversight staff as well as the district personnel directly responsible for the reassignment in its current stage. LAUSD provided examples of these alerts. This functionality of the CASE database therefore assists and guides LAUSD personnel in monitoring each key decision point for active reassignment cases to help ensure that responsible parties meet the time frames associated with those steps and for resolving teacher reassignments.

60-Day Agency Response

Currently, the LAUSD has in place an electronic system that tracks reassigned employees and their cases. A regular report is shared with senior staff on a need to know basis. The system allows the LAUSD to track the status of all cases, including at what stage in the decision making process the case resides. The LAUSD is also piloting an even more comprehensive system entitled Consolidated Accountability System for Employees (CASE), which will assist the LAUSD in its diligence. We currently are working on the reporting function in CASE so that it accurately reports how long each matter is with each department, so that unnecessarily delays (if any) may be identified and addressed.

As part of LAUSD's next revision to its bulletin governing reassignment procedures, which we anticipate distributing at the start of the new year, the LAUSD agrees that it would be beneficial to highlight the capabilities of these systems in periodic tracking and implement best practices to ensure compliance with our goals regarding ideal time frames. Outreach to and training for local districts will assist the District in ensuring expedient processing of reassigned employees.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

We have assessed the status of this recommendation as pending until LAUSD completes the steps it notes in its response and provides us with documentation to demonstrate the system's capacity to periodically monitor and report on the length of active and past reassignments.

All Recommendations in 2016-103

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.