Statewide Teacher Fingerprinting Starts in Austin Today

Superintendent Pat Forgione today became the first Texas school employee to be fingerprinted under the state’s newly-required background check initiative.

Senate Bill 9 passed by the 2007 Texas Legislature requires all Texas public schools districts and charter schools to conduct national criminal history checks on certified (teaching and administrative) employees. Austin is the first Texas school district to undertake the initiative.

“We are pleased that the Texas Education Agency selected our district to lead the state in this new and extremely valuable initiative” Forgione said. “In approving Senate Bill 9 our Texas Legislature rightly wanted to help ensure students’ safety. We appreciate that high level of caring for every young person in our schools.”

Beginning today and continuing through March 24 the Austin district will fingerprint more than 6600 certified staff. Portable fingerprinting units will be rotated to all campuses for the fingerprint procedure.

“Over the next 80 days every Austin teacher principal substitute teacher and teacher assistant will submit their fingerprints for the national criminal history background check. Additionally every classified employee hired after January 1 2008 also will be checked. This will be a Herculean effort but we’ll get the job done” Forgione said.

Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst and Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott attended the Austin school district’s press event.

“As Lieutenant Governor I have a responsibility to ensure our children are safe when they attend a public school in this state” Dewhurst said. “This new statewide criminal background check system will give administrators critical information they need to help prevent individuals who work on a public school campus from harming our students. Parents deserve to know who has access to their children and it is the right thing to do to protect our kids and our future.”

Commissioner Scott said “Today we begin a massive undertaking to run background checks on about one million public school employees over the next four years. The goal is to make our schools the safest place possible for our children.

“Both as Commissioner and as a parent with children in this District I appreciate Austin ISD volunteering to be the first district to send its employees through the new background check process” Scott said.

National criminal history checks for Class B Misdemeanors and above will be conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety as administered by the State Board for Educator Certification.

In Austin instances of offenses revealed by the background checks will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine continued employability by the school district.

The state will fully fund the background checks for workers employed in Texas schools during the 2006-07 school year. All certified employees not working in Texas during the 2006-07 school year will pay a portion of the fee and then be reimbursed by their school district.