Report 2016-103 Recommendations

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.

To avoid significant delays in returning reassigned teachers to work, by April 2017 LAUSD should develop written procedures to guide staff in identifying appropriate placement options. These procedures should include time frames by which relevant LAUSD personnel including, but not limited to, Employee Relations and the General Counsel, are to meet with one another to ensure an appropriate and timely placement. In cases in which the teacher has been reassigned for a long time, such as in cases returning from the Hearings office, the procedure should also establish time frames by which LAUSD meets with the teacher to discuss the teacher's placement preferences.

To improve the consistency of its formal reassignments, by April 2017 LAUSD should develop a comprehensive risk evaluation tool to guide its local administrators in determining whether allegations against a teacher represent a clear risk to students or district personnel. LAUSD's evaluation tool should consider factors such as a teacher's prior behavior, the vulnerability of affected students, and the complexity of the allegations.

To minimize the number of reassignment investigations unnecessarily referred to its Investigation Team, by April 2017 LAUSD should revise its policy to allow local administrators, in certain circumstances and with sufficient justification, to request small, specific additional amounts of time to complete their initial investigations and possibly avoid formal reassignments. When it grants additional time to a local administrator, LAUSD should continue to closely monitor the local administrator's activities until its preliminary investigation is complete.

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.

To ensure that it clearly informs reassigned teachers that they may voluntarily pursue professional development during their reassignments, including online training through LAUSD's Learning Zone program, by April 2017 LAUSD should revise the language in its standard reassignment documents.

To ensure that substitutes do not exceed assignment time limits that state law and regulations have established, by April 2017 LAUSD should formalize its recent practice of reviewing assignments of substitutes in its Smart Find system weekly. As part of this formalized practice, LAUSD should review open teacher reassignments to ensure that the Smart Find system includes all substitute assignments for those teachers.