Bill > S639

Introduced Session

This bill would establish the "School Bus Safety and Child Protection Act," requiring criminal background checks for certain school employees and prohibiting interference with school bus monitoring devices. The bill would make it a crime of the fourth degree to purposely alter, destroy, conceal or disable a monitoring device, including a camera or other medium used to record sound or images that is installed in a school bus. A fourth degree crime is punishable by up to 18 months imprisonment and a fine of up to $10,000 or both. This bill would also clarify that any school bus aide in the public and charter school systems, and any school that receives public funds for school buses is required to have a background check. Prospective aides and school bus drivers shall also submit to a background check prior to starting employment and every five years thereafter in these schools. The bill also permits non-public schools to conduct similar background checks to those performed by public schools, charter schools, and schools that receive governmental funding for school buses. The bill would also require that the results of the criminal history background check be sent to the county superintendent of the county in which a bus driver or school bus aide would be employed. This bill would require that an employee who commits a disqualifying offense be suspended until the offense is adjudicated, and a conviction or other adverse adjudication would result in termination of the employee's service. The bill also requires each school district that has cameras which record images on school buses to appoint an employee to randomly view such recorded images during each school year.

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Jim Beach (D)*,  Linda Greenstein (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Education Committee (on 01/09/2018)