California schools already have significant responsibilities when screening prospective employees for prior egregious misconduct.
Beginning January 1, 2027, California AB 1381 raises the stakes.
Signed into law on September 20, 2026, Assembly Bill 1381 (AB 1381) strengthens California's existing school employee background and employment-history requirements by placing explicit responsibility on school leaders to ensure required employment-history inquiries are completed before an employee is hired.
For K–12 HR and talent teams, that means the employment-verification process created through laws including AB 2534 and SB 848 can no longer be treated as simply another hiring checklist item.
It is becoming an increasingly important compliance workflow.
What is California AB 1381?
AB 1381 is a California law focused on previous-employment disclosures and egregious misconduct screening for people seeking employment in schools.
Under existing California law, applicants for school positions must disclose their prior school employers, and prospective school employers have obligations to inquire with those organizations regarding certain complaints, investigations, or discipline involving egregious misconduct.
AB 1381 adds another important layer of accountability.
The law provides that the superintendent of a school district or county office of education—or the chief administrator of a charter school or private school—may not hire a certificated or noncertificated employee without completing the applicable employment-history inquiry.
The law also requires those leaders to ensure compliance with the employment-history inquiry requirements. Failure to comply constitutes unprofessional conduct and may subject the superintendent or chief administrator to adverse action by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC).
That is a meaningful change.
The compliance risk is no longer limited to whether an organization has a process on paper. AB 1381 creates direct accountability around making sure the required process actually happens.
When Does AB 1381 Take Effect?
AB 1381 takes effect January 1, 2027.
The bill was approved by Governor Gavin Newsom and chaptered on September 20, 2026 as Chapter 364, Statutes of 2026.
California school HR teams should use the remainder of 2026 to review their hiring workflows and determine:
How prior school employers are collected from candidates
Who is responsible for sending required inquiries
How requests and responses are documented
How outstanding verifications are tracked
How administrators know the required process has been completed before a candidate is hired
How records can be produced if the organization later needs to demonstrate compliance
For organizations still managing this process through individual email inboxes, spreadsheets, PDFs, and manual follow-ups, AB 1381 is a good reason to revisit that workflow before January.
What Does AB 1381 Require Schools to Do?
For certificated applicants, California Education Code Section 44939.5 requires applicants to provide a prospective employer with a complete list of the school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, state special schools or diagnostic centers, and private schools where they were previously employed.
The prospective employer must then inquire with those prior school employers regarding whether the applicant was the subject of certain:
Credible complaints of egregious misconduct
Substantiated investigations into egregious misconduct
Discipline for egregious misconduct
where those matters were required to be reported to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
When a prior employer has made an applicable report to the CTC, it must disclose that fact upon inquiry and provide relevant information in its possession that was reported to the Commission.
AB 1381 then adds a critical requirement:
School leaders cannot hire a certificated or noncertificated employee without completing the applicable employment-history inquiry.
In practical terms, schools need a reliable way to make these inquiries part of the hiring process—not an after-the-fact administrative task.
How Is AB 1381 Different From AB 2534?
AB 1381 builds on the employment-history screening framework already familiar to many California K–12 HR teams through AB 2534.
AB 2534 expanded requirements around applicants disclosing previous school employment and prospective employers contacting those prior employers regarding egregious misconduct.
AB 1381 adds stronger accountability for compliance.
One of its most significant provisions is the creation of Education Code Section 44030.6, which explicitly states that covered school leaders shall not hire an employee without completing the applicable employment-history inquiry and must ensure compliance with those requirements.
AB 1381 also establishes that a certificated applicant's failure to provide the required employment history constitutes unprofessional conduct and may subject that individual to adverse action by the CTC.
So while AB 2534 helped define the required employment-history verification process, AB 1381 adds greater accountability for making sure it is followed.
Does AB 1381 Apply to Charter and Private Schools?
Yes. AB 1381 specifically references: School districts, County offices of education, Charter schools, & Private schools.
The underlying employment-history provisions also cover state special schools and diagnostic centers operated by the California Department of Education in relevant circumstances.
This makes AB 1381 relevant well beyond traditional public school districts.
Charter networks, independent schools, and other covered K–12 employers should review their hiring processes ahead of January 1, 2027.
Does AB 1381 Apply to Classified Employees?
AB 1381 addresses both certificated and noncertificated employees.
The new Education Code Section 44030.6 prohibits covered school leaders from hiring either a certificated or noncertificated employee without completing the applicable employment-history inquiry required under the relevant section of California law.
That makes it especially important for HR teams to understand which workflow applies based on the position being filled.
Does a School Have to Receive Every Verification Before Hiring?
This is one area where schools should be careful about oversimplifying the statute.
AB 1381 says a covered administrator shall not hire an employee “without completing the inquiry for employment history” required by the applicable Education Code section. For certificated staff, Section 44939.5 says the prospective employer “shall inquire” with each prior school employer disclosed by the applicant.
The statutory language therefore clearly requires the inquiry process to be completed before hiring. However, organizations should consult their legal counsel regarding precisely what constitutes a completed inquiry, particularly when a prior employer does not respond despite repeated attempts.
Regardless of that interpretation, organizations should be able to demonstrate what they did: who was contacted, when requests were sent, whether reminders were sent, what responses were received, and how unresolved inquiries were handled.
That documentation becomes increasingly important under AB 1381.
Why AB 1381 Creates an Operational Challenge for School HR Teams
The law itself is relatively straightforward.
The workflow often isn't.
Consider a candidate who previously worked for six California school employers.
Someone on the HR team may need to:
Collect a complete employment history from the candidate.
Determine the correct organization for each prior employer.
Identify an appropriate contact.
Send each verification request.
Track which organizations have responded.
Follow up with organizations that haven't.
Review incoming emails and documents.
Match those responses to the correct candidate.
Escalate anything requiring additional review.
Maintain documentation showing the inquiry was completed.
Now multiply that by dozens—or hundreds—of hires.
A compliance requirement can quickly turn into a substantial administrative workload.
That's the problem Edpursuit Verification Intelligence is designed to help solve.
How Edpursuit Helps Schools Manage AB 1381, AB 2534, and SB 848 Verifications
Edpursuit Verification Intelligence helps K–12 HR and talent teams manage high-stakes employment verification workflows in one place.
Instead of coordinating every request through spreadsheets and individual inboxes, Edpursuit provides a structured workflow for managing AB 2534, SB 848, and related egregious misconduct employment verifications. Edpursuit describes its platform as helping schools centralize these workflows, manage outreach and reminders, and maintain audit-ready documentation.
With Edpursuit, HR teams can manage the verification process from candidate employment history through completed documentation.
Centralize employment-history inquiries
Keep verification requests and their status connected to the candidate rather than spread across emails, spreadsheets, and shared drives.
Find and manage prior school employers
Edpursuit helps teams manage the organizations and contacts involved in the verification process, reducing the manual work required to determine where requests need to go.
Automate outreach and follow-ups
Sending the initial inquiry is only the beginning.
One of the biggest administrative burdens is following up with organizations that haven't responded. Edpursuit helps manage those reminders so HR teams don't have to continually check a spreadsheet and send emails manually.
Organize incoming responses
Responses can arrive as emails, attachments, completed forms, or other documents.
Edpursuit helps bring the verification workflow together so teams can review responses in context and maintain the supporting documentation associated with each verification.
Maintain an auditable record
With AB 1381 placing additional accountability on school leaders, documentation matters.
Edpursuit is built around creating consistent, evidence-ready compliance workflows so organizations can understand what happened, when it happened, and what records support the process.
What Should California Schools Do Before January 1, 2027?
Organizations don't need to wait until AB 1381 takes effect to prepare. Start by reviewing your current hiring process. Ask:
Do we consistently collect every candidate's prior school employment?
Who is responsible for initiating the required inquiries?
How do we know every required employer has actually been contacted?
How are unanswered inquiries followed up on?
Where are responses stored?
Can HR leadership easily see which verifications remain outstanding?
Can we demonstrate what happened six months or two years later?
What prevents a candidate from moving through the hiring process before the required inquiry is completed?
If answering those questions requires opening multiple spreadsheets, searching through someone's inbox, or asking a particular employee what happened, there's an opportunity to create a more reliable process before January 1.
Preparing for AB 1381 Doesn't Have to Mean More Work for HR
California continues to strengthen the safeguards surrounding school employee hiring.
But better compliance shouldn't require HR teams to spend more of their day sending emails, tracking down contacts, updating spreadsheets, and following up on unanswered requests.
That's why Edpursuit built Verification Intelligence.
Edpursuit helps California school districts, charter schools, and independent schools manage AB 2534, SB 848, AB 1381, employment verifications, and professional reference checks through one centralized workflow.
The goal is simple:
Make the required process easier to complete—and easier to prove.
Get Ready for AB 1381
AB 1381 takes effect January 1, 2027.
If your organization is reviewing its employment verification process ahead of the new requirements, Edpursuit can help you build a more consistent and scalable workflow.
Book a demo of Edpursuit Verification Intelligence to see how your team can manage employment-history inquiries, follow-ups, responses, and compliance documentation in one place.
This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Organizations should consult their legal counsel regarding the application of AB 1381 and other California employment and education laws to their specific circumstances.
Article written by
Robert Crayton
