The governing board of any community college district, within 10 working days of date of employment, shall require each person to be employed, or employed in, a nonacademic position to have two 8″× 8″ fingerprint cards bearing the legible rolled and flat impressions of that person’s fingerprints together with a personal description of the applicant or employee, as the case may be, prepared by a local public law enforcement agency having jurisdiction in the area of the district, which agency shall transmit the cards, together with the fee hereinafter specified, to the Department of Justice; except that a district, or districts with a common board, having a full-time equivalent student of 60,000 or more may process the fingerprint cards if the district so elects. “Local public law enforcement agency,” as used in this section and in Section 88025, includes a community college district with full-time equivalent students of 60,000 or more. Upon receiving the identification cards, the Department of Justice shall ascertain whether the applicant or employee has been arrested or convicted of any crime insofar as that fact can be ascertained from information available to the department and shall forward that information to the local public law enforcement agency submitting the applicant’s or employee’s fingerprints at the earliest possible date. The Department of Justice may forward one copy of the fingerprint cards submitted to any other bureau of investigation it may deem necessary in order to verify any record of previous arrests or convictions of the applicant or employee.

The governing board of each district shall forward a request to the Department of Justice indicating the number of current employees who have not completed the requirements of this section. The Department of Justice shall direct when the cards are to be forwarded to it for processing. Districts that previously have submitted identification cards for current employees to either the Department of Justice or the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall not be required to further implement the provisions of this section as it applies to those employees.

A plea or verdict of guilty, or a finding of guilt by a court in a trial without a jury or forfeiture of bail, is deemed to be a conviction within the meaning of this section, irrespective of a subsequent order under Section 1203.4 of the Penal Code allowing the withdrawal of the plea of guilty and entering of a plea of not guilty, or setting aside the verdict of guilty, or dismissing the accusations or information.

The governing board shall provide the means whereby the identification cards may be completed and shall charge a fee determined by the Department of Justice to be sufficient to reimburse the department for the costs incurred in processing the application. The amount of the fee shall be forwarded to the Department of Justice with two copies of applicant’s or employee’s fingerprint cards. The governing board may collect an additional fee not to exceed two dollars ($2) payable to the local public law enforcement agency taking the fingerprints and completing the data on the fingerprint cards. The additional fees shall be transmitted to the city or county treasury. If an applicant is subsequently hired by the board within 30 days of the application, the fee may be reimbursed to the applicant. Funds not reimbursed to applicants shall be credited to the general fund of the district. If the fingerprint cards forwarded to the Department of Justice are those of a person already in the employ of the governing board, the district shall pay the fee required by this section, which fee shall be a proper charge against the general fund of the district, and no fee shall be charged the employee.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, substitute and temporary employees, employed for less than a school year, may be exempted from these provisions. This section shall not apply to a district, or districts with a common board, that has an average daily attendance of 400,000 or greater, or to a community college district wholly within a city and county, unless the governing board of the district or districts, by rule, provides for adherence to this section.

(Amended by Stats. 1995, Ch. 758, Sec. 196. Effective January 1, 1996.)