How to Complete the California AB 2534 Employment History Form

When you apply for a job at a California public school, charter school, state special school, and (as of January 1, 2026) a private school or state diagnostic center, you have to fill out a disclosure form listing every California educational agency where you have previously worked. That requirement comes from AB 2534, codified in Education Code section 44939.5, and the California AB 2534 employment history form is the document the hiring district uses to collect that list so it can check with each former employer for any record of egregious misconduct involving students.¹

There is no single statewide version of the form. Each district, county office, charter, or school designs its own as part of its hiring packet. The content it asks for, however, is the same everywhere the law applies.

What the Form Is For

The form exists so a hiring agency can do something it is legally required to do: contact every one of your prior California educational employers and ask whether you were ever the subject of a credible complaint, substantiated investigation, or discipline for egregious misconduct that the former employer had to report to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing.¹ Your list is what tells them who to call. If a former employer is missing from your list, that employer never gets contacted, and the verification the law requires cannot happen.

The disclosure applies regardless of whether the position you are applying for is permanent, temporary, or part-time. It applies to certificated roles — teachers, administrators, counselors, and anyone else holding a credential — and, under Education Code section 44051, to classified roles such as custodial staff, office workers, and instructional aides.²

What to List on the Form

Include every California educational employer you have ever worked for. That means:

School districts
County offices of education
Charter schools
State special schools
State diagnostic centers operated by the California Department of Education (required as of January 1, 2026)
Private schools in California (required as of January 1, 2026)

List short-term assignments and part-time jobs along with your full-time positions. A long-term substitute post at one district and a two-month aide position at another both belong on the form. The statute does not carve out a minimum length of service, and leaving a job off the list defeats the verification process the law was built to run.¹

How to Fill It Out

Use each agency’s full legal name. Write “Los Angeles Unified School District” rather than “LAUSD.” Abbreviations and nicknames slow the hiring office down and can send inquiries to the wrong place. If an agency has changed names since you worked there, list the name that was in use during your employment and note the current name if you know it.

Include employment dates and, where the form asks for it, your position title. These help the former employer locate the right personnel file quickly, which keeps your application moving.

Some districts add a direct question asking whether you have ever been the subject of a credible complaint, substantiated investigation, or discipline for egregious misconduct. The law puts the duty to gather that information on the hiring agency through its contact with your former employers, but a district is free to ask you directly on its own form as an extra screening step. Answer honestly. A misrepresentation discovered during the verification step is almost always fatal to a candidacy, and in some cases a knowingly false statement about a colleague can lead to credential consequences of its own.¹

What “Egregious Misconduct” Covers

The form uses a defined legal term. Under Education Code section 44932(a)(1), egregious misconduct means immoral conduct that qualifies as an offense under Education Code sections 44010 or 44011, or under Penal Code sections 11165.2 through 11165.6.³ In practice, that pulls in three categories:

Sex offenses listed in Education Code section 44010, including sexual assault, lewd conduct with a minor, distributing obscene material to minors, indecent exposure, and any conviction requiring sex offender registration.⁴
Controlled substance offenses under Education Code section 44011.
Child abuse and neglect offenses defined in Penal Code sections 11165.2 through 11165.6, including severe neglect, physical abuse, and sexual exploitation.⁵

Ordinary workplace complaints, performance disputes, and routine discipline fall outside this definition. The form is targeted at the narrow category of conduct the statute names.

What Happens After You Submit the Form

Once your list is in, the hiring agency contacts each former employer with the question the statute requires. Former employers who have reported egregious misconduct about you to the CTC must turn over copies of the relevant records. Former employers with nothing to report confirm a clean record.¹

The statute does not set a response deadline for former employers, so timing depends on how quickly each one handles the request. If you have worked at several California educational agencies, expect the verification step to add time to the hiring timeline. The hiring agency reviews whatever comes back before making a final decision.

What Former Employers Can and Cannot Say

AB 2534 blocks several ways misconduct records used to disappear. A school cannot enter into any agreement — a settlement, a separation deal, or anything similar — that would prevent a mandatory report of egregious misconduct to the CTC or any other state or federal agency.¹ Schools also cannot expunge credible complaints, substantiated investigations, or disciplinary records tied to egregious misconduct from an employee’s personnel file.

There is one exception. If you challenged the allegations through a formal proceeding before an arbitrator, school board, personnel commission, Commission on Professional Competence, or administrative law judge, and you prevailed, or the allegations were found to be false, unsubstantiated, or not warranting discipline, those records can be removed.¹ If that applies to you and the former employer still forwards something, you can point to the proceeding outcome in your response to the hiring agency.

What Changed in 2026 Under SB 848

If you are filling out an AB 2534 disclosure after January 1, 2026, two changes affect what goes on the form.

First, the list of prior employers you must disclose now includes California private schools and state diagnostic centers, not just public districts, county offices, charters, and state special schools.¹ If you taught at a private academy or worked at a state diagnostic center in the past, those positions belong on the form.

Second, if you are applying for a noncertificated (classified) position, you now have a parallel disclosure obligation under Education Code section 44051. The content you provide is the same: a complete list of prior California educational employers, with the hiring agency inquiring about egregious misconduct at each one.² Before SB 848, only certificated applicants filled out these forms. Now custodians, office staff, instructional aides, and other classified applicants do too.

1
California Legislative Information. California Education Code EDC 44939.5
2
LegiScan. Bill Text CA SB848 2025-2026 Regular Session Amended
3
California Legislative Information. California Code Education Code EDC 44932
4
California Legislative Information. California Education Code EDC 44010
5
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 11165.2