S 3010School Safety

Education - Health and Safety of Pupils

Schools must report non-teacher employees fired for cause to a state database used for background checks by other schools.

Held for study

Population
Affected

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Introduced Mar 5, 2026Committee Senate Education

Plain-English Summary

This legislation mandates that all schools in Rhode Island, including public, private, and charter schools, report non-teacher employees who are terminated for "good and just cause" to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. This reporting must occur within 60 days of termination or the conclusion of an appeal. The Department is required to maintain a confidential tracking list of these individuals and the reasons for their termination. This list will be accessible only to school hiring authorities to assist in vetting potential employees. The requirement does not apply to layoffs caused by budget cuts or routine contract non-renewals.

For younger readers

This bill creates a new rule for schools to help keep students safe. Sometimes, people who work at a school but aren't teachers (like office workers or custodians) get fired because they did something wrong. If this happens, the school has to tell the state education department. The state will keep a private list of these people. Before another school hires someone, they can check this list to make sure the person wasn't fired for a bad reason at another school. This helps stop people who made bad mistakes from moving to a new school.

Who & Where It Applies

Impacted groups

Non-teacher school employeesSchool principalsSchool superintendentsSchool hiring authoritiesStudents

Impacted communities

All

Constitutional & Fiscal Check

None Likely

Estimated cost

Amount unknown

Estimated revenue

None

Bill Analysis

Both viewpoints

For Progressives

Enhances the safety and welfare of the community by preventing individuals with a history of misconduct from moving between schools undetected, thereby protecting vulnerable students.
Promotes systemic reform in school hiring practices by creating a centralized mechanism for accountability, ensuring that serious infractions are not swept under the rug.
Standardizes safety protocols across all types of educational institutions, ensuring that students in public, private, and charter schools benefit from the same level of protection.
Creates a potential "blacklist" that could permanently hinder the future employment prospects of low-wage workers, potentially without sufficient rehabilitation pathways.
Relies on the "good and just cause" standard, which can be subjective and potentially abused by employers to retaliate against workers or union organizers.
May infringe on the privacy rights of workers by creating a government database of employment history that tracks individuals even after they have left a position.

For Conservatives

Empowers school administrators and hiring authorities with critical information to make informed hiring decisions, protecting their institutions from liability and risk.
Ensures that private and charter schools have access to the same disciplinary data as public schools, supporting the autonomy and safety of alternative education models.
Promotes law and order within the education system by ensuring that consequences for misconduct follow an individual, preventing them from escaping accountability by simply changing jobs.
Expands government bureaucracy by creating a new state-run tracking system and database that requires ongoing management and resources.
Imposes government mandates on private and religious schools regarding their internal employment records and termination procedures, infringing on their operational independence.
Raises concerns about the potential weaponization of employment records, where a state agency holds sensitive data that could be leaked or misused despite privacy assurances.

Votes

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Full Bill Text

Changes to existing Rhode Island law · 27 additions

SECTION 1. Chapter 16-21 of the General Laws entitled "Health and Safety of Pupils" is hereby amended by adding thereto the following section: 16-21-44. Termination for cause -- Non-teacher employees -- List maintained.

(a) Whenever a non-teacher employee’s employment with a school is terminated for good and just cause by a principal, superintendent, school committee or other governing body of a public school, a private school, a school district, a charter public school, or a mayoral academy (hereinafter collectively referred to as a “school”), the school’s governing body shall, within sixty (60) days of the termination, or in cases where the termination is appealed, within sixty (60) days after the conclusion of the appeal filed by the terminated non-teacher employee, and the termination is upheld, furnish the Rhode Island department of elementary and secondary education (the “department”) with the identity of the terminated non-teacher employee and the good and just cause for the termination. Provided, this section shall not apply to:

(1) The nonrenewal of a contract of a non-teacher employee without cause or unrelated to misconduct or performance; or

(2) The termination of a non-teacher employee due to fiscal exigency or program reorganization.

(b) The department shall maintain a list of those non-teacher employees who have been terminated for good and just cause as well as the good and just cause for the termination (the “list”), and shall update the list monthly to include any additional names and cause submitted pursuant to the provisions of this section. The department shall establish a tracking system for reporting these names and causes, as well as to provide access to these names and causes, to hiring authorities. This list shall be accessible only to the hiring authority of any private, parochial, charter, or public school or school district.

(c) The list shall not be a public record pursuant to chapter 2 of title 38 ("access to public records"). This section shall not abrogate or modify any existing statutory or common law privileges or immunities.

(d) As used herein, the term “non-teacher employee” means any person working within or for a school whose employment with the school is not subject to the provisions of chapter 13 of title 16.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.