San Francisco Unified School District and County Office of Education
Board Policy 1240
Volunteer Assistance
This Board Policy applies to the San Francisco Unified School District and the County Office of Education.
The Board of Education recognizes that volunteer assistance in schools can enrich the educational program, increase supervision of students, and contribute to school safety while strengthening the schools’ relationships with the community. The Board encourages parents/guardians and other members of the community to share their time, knowledge, and abilities with students.
The Superintendent or designee shall develop and implement a plan for recruiting, screening, and placing volunteers, including strategies for reaching underrepresented groups of parents/guardians and community members. He/she may also recruit community members to serve as mentors to students and/or make appropriate referrals to community organizations.
Volunteer Responsibilities
As appropriate, the Superintendent or designee shall provide volunteers with information about school goals, programs, and practices and an orientation or other training related to their specific responsibilities. Employees who supervise volunteers shall ensure that volunteers are assigned meaningful responsibilities that utilize their skills and expertise and maximize their contribution to the educational program.
Volunteers may assist certificated personnel in the performance of their duties, in the supervision of students, and in instructional tasks which, in the judgment of the certificated personnel to which the volunteer is assigned, may be performed by a person not licensed as a classroom teacher. These duties shall not include assignment of grades to students. (Education Code 45343, 45344, 45349)
However, volunteer aides shall not be used to assist certificated staff in performing teaching or administrative responsibilities in place of regularly authorized classified employees who have been laid off. (Education Code 35021)
Volunteer maintenance work shall be limited to those projects that do not replace the normal maintenance duties of classified staff. The Board nevertheless encourages volunteers to work on short-term projects to the extent that they enhance the classroom or school, do not significantly increase maintenance workloads, and comply with employee negotiated agreements.
Volunteers shall act in accordance with district policies, regulations, and school rules. The Superintendent or designee shall be responsible for investigating and resolving complaints regarding volunteers.
Volunteer Recognition
The Board encourages principals to develop a means for recognizing the contributions of each school’s volunteers. The Superintendent or designee shall periodically report to the Board regarding the district’s volunteer program.
Qualifications
The Superintendent or designee shall establish procedures for determining whether volunteers possess the qualifications, if any, required by law and administrative regulation for the types of duties they will perform. The Superintendent or designee may collaborate with community organizations to assist in the volunteer recruitment, screening and placement process.
Activity Supervisor Clearance Certificate (Education Code 49024)
Prior to assuming a volunteer position to work with students in a student activity program sponsored by the district, a volunteer shall obtain an Activity Supervisor Clearance Certificate from the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. A student activity program sponsored by the district includes, but is not limited to, scholastic programs, interscholastic programs, and extracurricular activities sponsored by the district or a school booster club, including, but not limited to, cheer team, drill team, dance team, and marching band.
Exceptions:
- Volunteer supervisors for breakfast, lunch, or other nutritional periods pursuant to Education Code 44814 and 44815 and nonteaching volunteer aides, as defined in Education Code 35021, who are under the immediate supervision and direction of certificated personnel of the district, shall not be required to obtain an Activity Supervisor Clearance Certificate.
- A nonteaching volunteer aide includes a parent volunteering in their child’s classroom or on a field trip or a community member providing noninstructional services.
- A volunteer does not need to obtain an Activity Supervisor Clearance Certificate if the district has required him/her to clear a Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation criminal background check prior to beginning work in a pupil activity program.
Tuberculosis Screening
No volunteer shall be assigned to supervise or instruct students unless he/she has submitted evidence of an examination within the past 60 days to determine that he/she is free of active tuberculosis. Volunteers who test negative shall thereafter be required to take a tuberculosis test every four years in accordance with Education Code 49406. (Education Code 45106, 45347, 45349, 49406)
The Superintendent or designee may exempt from tuberculosis testing requirements those volunteers who serve less than a school year and whose functions do not require frequent or prolonged contact with students. (Education Code 49406)
Prohibition Against Volunteering by Sex Offenders
The Superintendent or designee shall not assign any person required to register as a sex offender pursuant to Penal Code 290 as a volunteer who assists certificated personnel in the performance of their duties; supervises students during lunch, breakfast, or other nutritional period; or serves as a nonteaching aide to perform noninstructional tasks. In addition, a person who is required to register as a sex offender because of a conviction for a crime where the victim was a minor under age 16 shall not serve as a volunteer in any capacity in which he/she would be working directly and in an unaccompanied setting with minors on more than an incidental and occasional basis or have supervision or disciplinary power over minors. (Education Code 35021, 45349; Penal Code 290.95)
The Superintendent or designee may require all volunteers to disclose their status as a registered sex offender and/or provide the district with sufficient information in order to allow verification of this status on the Department of Justice’s Megan’s Law web site.
Policy SAN FRANCISCO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
adopted: March 12, 2013 San Francisco, California
Please note that compare references, or “cf”, refer to CSBA model policies and do not necessarily indicate that the San Francisco Unified School District has adopted the referenced policy.