| TO: | Honorable Larry Taylor, Chair, Senate Committee on Education |
| FROM: | Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | SB7 by Bettencourt (Relating to improper relationships between educators and students; creating a criminal offense and expanding the applicability of an existing offense.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted |
The provisions of the bill that are the subject of this analysis would amend the Penal and Education Codes as they relate to improper relationships between educators and students. Under the provisions of the bill, the offense of improper relationship between educator and students, 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 under certain circumstances a new criminal offense. The offense would be punishable as a Class A misdemeanor or a state jail felony depending on the specific circumstances of the offense.
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, all felony-level 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 is expected to result in increased demands upon the correctional resources of counties or of the State due to longer terms of supervision in the community or longer terms of confinement in state correctional institutions. In fiscal year 2016, 68 individuals were arrested, 30 were placed on felony community supervision, and 11 were admitted to state correctional institutions for the offense of improper relationship between educator and students. This analysis assumes the provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions would not result in a significant impact on the demand of state correctional resources.
| Source Agencies: |
| LBB Staff: | UP, LM, JPo
|