Report 2016-103 Recommendation 5 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 #5 To: Los Angeles Unified School District
To ensure that local administrators are providing appropriate and consistent information to reassigned teachers regarding the reasons for their reassignments, by April 2017 LAUSD should develop procedures to periodically review the documents it began collecting under its May 2016 policy revision and determine whether those documents are consistent with its policy and with the facts of the individual reassignments.
1-Year Agency Response
The audit task force receives and reviews all Attachment C forms (attached to the July 17, 2017 bulletin). The task force updated the incident types in Attachment D to provide more accurate incident descriptions after an internal audit of cost common inconsistencies. In cases where the task force disagrees with the selection of incident type, the task force returns the form with instructions to revise. This review is ongoing by the task force with each form for reassignment that is submitted.
- Completion Date: July 2017
- Response Date: October 2017
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented
LAUSD has developed a written protocol directing human resources staff to review each attachment C form to compare the reason for reassignment provided to the circumstances of the allegation and the list of allowable incident descriptions. LAUSD also provided documentation showing that the district will return an attachment C form to a local administrator if the description is missing or does not comport to the provided list of standard reasons.
6-Month Agency Response
The Audit Response Task Force, which consists of two human resource professionals, was created to ensure continual review of all documents submitted regarding reassigned employees. The task force reviews documents submitted to the Incident Reporting System to ensure accuracy and they review the reason for the reassignment as it relates to student and employee safety as well as the need for full investigation by SSIT.
- Completion Date: November 2016
- Response Date: April 2017
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending
Although LAUSD's response indicates that the recommended document review is occurring, it has not developed procedures to periodically review the documents it began collecting under its May 2016 policy revision. Developing procedures is necessary to ensure that the reviews are thorough and timely and that the process continues in the future should the currently responsible staff leave LAUSD or move on to other positions. LAUSD has told us that it will proceed with developing these formal procedures.
- Auditee did not substantiate its claim of full implementation
60-Day Agency Response
The LAUSD has implemented a centralized review of the relevant bulletin attachments by a joint Office of the General Counsel/Human Resources task force. As part of this review, the task force will download all relevant documents supporting the request for reassignment and identify those that are in conflict or inconsistent with the relevant bulletin. If the matter cannot be resolved with the local district, then the matter will be submitted to the Chief Human Resources Officer for final resolution.
- Estimated Completion Date: March 31, 2017
- Response Date: January 2017
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending
All Recommendations in 2016-103
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.