JISD ahead of curve on SB 9 changes
"We already do background checks anyway but SB 9 will require fingerprinting checks." - Jasper ISD's Chris Coleman
By JIMMY GALVAN Managing Editor

While other school districts may have to struggle to comply with Senate Bill 9, the Jasper Independent School District has already put many of the bill's directives into motion.

"We already do background checks anyway but SB 9 will require fingerprinting checks," said Jasper ISD Human Resources Director Chris Coleman. "Everyone in the district will have to undergo the fingerprinting process with the district."

Senate Bill 9, which went into effect Jan. 1, is called the School Safety Act and protects Texas students and teachers in public schools from registered sex offenders and criminals convicted of a felony offense against a child.

The bill requires that every public school employee - both certified and noncertified personnel - submit fingerprints for a national criminal history background check. In addition, it would create a clearinghouse for this information to be shared between school districts when an employee transfers to another employer.

The clearinghouse will be administered by the Department of Public Safety, which will develop specific procedures for its use.

Coleman said the bill's initiatives need to be in place with school districts by 2011.

According to the Texas Education Agency website, all classroom substitutes must be fingerprinted by September 2011 and all active certified educators must be fingerprinted by Sept. 1, 2011.

"It will affect us starting Jan. 1 on auxiliary personnel including custodians, food service workers, bus drivers and substitute teachers," Coleman said.

Coleman said the state would send out mobile units to each of the school district to conduct the fingerprinting process for anyone hired after 2003.

"Those employees hired in 2005-06, will not be charged for the process," Coleman said. "Those hired after that date, the state will charge the district a fee."

Coleman said this additional cost makes it hard on school districts that are financially strapped for money.

"The locations where our prospective employees will have to be fingerprinted will be either Lufkin or Beaumont," Coleman said. "It will cost each employee $62 to get this process done plus they are going to have to drive to either Lufkin or Beaumont.

"For small school districts like us, it will cost us and make it hard for those prospective employees to travel to these locations to get this process done," Coleman said. "I understand that this law will make it safer for our students but it will make it tougher for smaller school districts that are not close to metropolitan areas. If a school district doesn't cover the cost of the fingerprinting, you are looking at close to $100 for an employee in actual costs for this process. Jasper ISD will cover the fingerprinting costs because it's too much to ask someone to do upfront without having a check first."

Senate Bill 9 contains the following key elements:

t Requiring national criminal background checks of all school employees;

t Prohibiting anyone convicted of a sex offense or felony against a child from being employed at a public school;

t Flagging an educator's certificate for this type of misconduct, to alert other potential employers;

t Creating a statewide clearinghouse of criminal background information available to state agencies and school districts;

t Improving communication between state and local school officials and law enforcement authorities through the sharing of information in a timely manner.

Until SB 9 went into effect, Texas only required checks for those certified since 2003. According to Senator Florence Shapiro, the bill's author, more than 200 candidates for certification have been found to have serious offenses on their records, including sexual misconduct and crimes against children.

"The idea of the law is good," Coleman said. "It's there to have safer schools and make sure you don't have employees who have a background. There is a no question that the idea of the law is good, however, there are still many details of this law that need to be ironed out.

"The idea of the guidelines are good and we have a lot of them already in place," Coleman said. "Some are not very new to us as far as doing background checks."