Schools work around FBI security checks

A law requiring Missouri schools to perform extensive background checks on employees has put a kink in the hiring process and left some districts with unanswered questions about meeting the new rule.

Last year, the state legislature passed a law that requires all schools to perform FBI fingerprint checks on any new employee who will have contact with students -- including teachers, aides, secretaries, custodians and cafeteria workers -- prior to that person having contact with students.

The law went into effect Jan. 1, but with a backlog of such requests already inundating the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the agency responsible for conducting the checks, it may take as many as 10 weeks for schools to get results back.

"I don't think anyone doubts the highway patrol is working hard to address the problem. They're just swamped and nobody sees those numbers dwindling," said Jim Morris, public information director with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

"Our advice to schools is to do as thorough a background check and reference check as they can do and make employment contingent on a clear FBI check," Morris said.

Officials in the Jackson School District say they have already used some of the special fingerprinting cards sent to them by the state education department, mailing the first batch of the year out last week.

Bonnie Stahlman at Jackson's board office said the district is sending new hires to the local police department for the actual fingerprinting. After that, the prints are mailed to the state education department and then forwarded to the highway patrol and FBI for processing.

"Luckily it's not the beginning of the school year. We're still trying to get more information about it," Stahlman said. "It takes four weeks for the regular check already. It's not feasible for us wait that long to replace employees."

Following the state education department's suggestion, Jackson has adopted a practice of hiring employees contingent on the receipt of a clean background check so that they can begin work before the results come in, if necessary.

The current fee for the FBI checks is $38, and the districts have the option of paying it themselves or requiring new employees to pay.

Superintendent Mark Bowles said Cape Girardeau School District is considering absorbing the cost of the checks for applicants.

"It's an amount of money that's very difficult to pass on to applicants," Bowles said. "We will likely pick up those costs just to keep from driving applicants away. It's a hefty sum of money but it's the right thing to do."

Organizations such as the Missouri School Boards Association say there are some concerns about the wording of the law.

For example, the wording of the statute refers to anyone "authorized" to have contact with a student, specifically administrators, teachers, aides, paraprofessionals, assistants, secretaries, custodians, cooks and nurses.

But there are some potential situations that the law does not address. According to Morris, one such example is that of summer school teachers who work in one local district during the regular year but may teach in a neighboring district during the summer.

The state school boards association has recommended to districts that if an employee is hired before a background check is completed, that employee should not be left unsupervised around students.

cclark@semissourian.com

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