Honorable Dan Huberty, Chair, House Committee on Public Education
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB7 by Bettencourt (Relating to improper relationships between educators and students and reporting of educator misconduct; creating a criminal offense and expanding the applicability of an existing offense; authorizing an administrative penalty.), Committee Report 2nd House, Substituted
The provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions would amend the Penal Code and Education Code as they relate to improper relationships between educators and students. Under the provisions of the bill, the offense of improper relationship between educator and student, punishable as a second degree felony, would be expanded to include certain students and employees. The bill would make failure to file a report about certain misconduct or a criminal record of an educator by certain persons with the intent to conceal certain information a new criminal offense. The offense would be punishable as a state jail felony.
A second degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for a term from 2 to 20 years and a state jail felony is punishable by confinement in a state jail for a term from 180 days to 2 years or Class A misdemeanor punishment. In addition to confinement, most felony offenses are subject to an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.
Expanding the list of behaviors for which a criminal penalty is applied and creating a new criminal offense are expected to result in increased demands upon the correctional resources of counties or of the State due to a potential increase in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement within state correctional institutions. In fiscal year 2016, 68 individuals were arrested, 30 were placed under felony community supervision, and 11 were admitted into state correctional institutions for the offense of improper relationship between educator and student under existing statute. This analysis assumes the provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions would not result in a significant impact on the demand for state correctional resources.