North Carolina consider background checks for all school employees

Last month, they appear to have made progress as a measure to strengthen background checks of teachers and other school personnel moved out of a Senate committee. Currently, local school districts have background check policies, but they vary. The State Board of Education cannot now require applicants for teaching licenses to be checked for criminal…

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Kansas considers updating background check regulations for school bus drivers

oard is considering whether it should require bus drivers to have a completely clean background check, with any felony record at any point in time being cause for disqualification for future employment or termination from current employment. It appears that parents of children in Kansas schools are divided on whether or not the expansion of…

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Pennsylvania Governor approves clarifications to background checks

child-protective background checking law. Despite the original law’s intention to protect children from sexual predators by requiring volunteers to undergo criminal history and state police background checks, there was much confusion regarding who the law should apply to, and which types of jobs required mandatory screening. “We thought we’d been specific … giving kind of…

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Will new Pennsylvania background check law take things a step too far?

Starting this month, Pennsylvania schools have some new rules in place to protect children from potential abuse. But some are concerned that the state’s new background check law is inconsistent and leaves school districts to attempt to navigate a tricky situation. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett signed a law that was a combination of 23 previous…

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Va. legislators investigating updating background checks on college students, transfer students

In light of the kidnapping of a University of Virginia student, Hannah Graham, the state’s lawmakers are considering re-vamping the process for conducting background checks not only on the state’s university students, but also how they handle students that transfer from one university to another within the state. Jesse Matthew Jr., a former football player…

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Audit: Mo. school district should update required types of background checks

After an internal audit, a Springfield, Mo., school district is considering adding more current types of background checks to its hiring and retention policies, including fingerprinting all long-time employees. According to an internal audit report, fingerprint-based background checks did not become district policy until January 1, 2005, and Springfield Public Schools has not fingerprinted employees that…

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Delaware, schools reconsidering background check policy after alleged assaults

After four students in the Woodbridge School District came forward with allegations that they’d been sexually assaulted by their teachers, Woodbridge School District and the Delaware House of Representatives are reconsidering their current background screening legislation and policies. Currently, the state allows new teachers to begin working before all background checks have been completed, a…

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Substitute’s background check lacked employee criminal history

After it was found that a Washington elementary school substitute teacher had threatened and hit some of his students, East Valley School District wondered how it was possible that Matthew Deryan had passed the background checks required to be a substitute teacher in the state. Deryan had a criminal history prior to being hired, though…

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