A1701 Fiscal Estimate

Assembly Bill No.1701 of 1996 provides that boards of education shall require that all job candidates having a conditional employment offer undergo a physical examination, and removes the required annual physical examination for all board employees. The current statute required that all current board employees undergo a physical exam annually and authorizes boards to require such an exam of any employee candidate. The bill stipulates that screening for tuberculosis and fitness examinations for bus drivers, whether required by statute, rule or regulation, are not to be affected by the provisions of this bill.

The Department of Education and the Office of Management and Budget have not provided any fiscal information on this legislation.

The Office of Legislative Services(OLS) notes that it is not possible to calculate a precise fiscal estimate for A-1701 because the number of job candidates who may receive an offer of employment is an unknown factor. However, using the following data from the Department of Education for the 1994-95 school year, the potential cost impact of A-1701 for certificated staff can be estimated. Department of Education data indicates that there were 105,011 full time, certificated staff members employed by boards of education in the 1994-95 school year. Of that total, 7,199 represent those employees newly hired during 1994-95, while 97,812 were employed the previous year. The table below indicates the difference between the cost of required physical examinations for full-time, certificated staff employed in the previous school year, 1993-94, and required examinations only for those newly hired in 1994-95. Further, the table illustrates the total costs if the individual physical exam cost was either $50 per person or $75.

Cost Comparison of Required Physical Examinations For Full-Time Certificated Staff Under Current Statute vs. Required Physical Exams Under A 1701.
	Estimated Costs Under Current Requirement: Certificated Staff with at least one year of experience	Estimated Costs Under A1701 Requirement: First Year Certificated staff only
Estimated Exam Cost	97,812	7,199
@$75.00 per person	$7,335,900	$539,925
@$50.00 per person	$4,890,600	$359,950

Assuming that all districts are providing physical examinations as required by statute, currently it is estimated that annual costs range from $7.3 to $4.9 million. The estimated range of savings would be $6.8 to $4.5 million.

The legislative fiscal estimate has been produced by the Office of Legislative Services due to the failure of the Executive Branch to respond to our request for a fiscal note.