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Statewide finger printing for teachers underway
By Mark Loyd News Editor
A new statewide program requiring all Texas schoolteachers and employees be finger printed and subjected to a background check went into effect this month.
The new program will serve as a supplement to the types of checks already done by Katy ISD.
Forty-three other states require national criminal background checks for certified educators.
Before the new law went into effect, , Texas only required checks for those certified since 2003. Since that time, more than 200 candidates for certification have been found to have serious offenses on their records, including sexual misconduct and crimes against children, according to State Senator Florence Shapiro, (R-Plano) who authored the bill
"As recently as 2004-2005, the State Board of Educator Certification found that 66 certified teachers were registered sex offenders," she said.
State officials have said it will be up to individual school districts to review offenses revealed by the background check.
Criminal background checks are nothing new to Katy ISD, as the district has been looking into the past of its teachers for several years.
Katy ISD spokesman Steve Stanford said teachers and substitute teachers are subject to two background checks before being assigned a classroom. "The first one is done during a job application review. We run a check through the Department of Public Safety," he said.
A second, more thorough check, Stanford said, is conducted by a third party contractor should district officials decide to offer an applicant a job. Applicants are required to list each county in which they have lived so criminal records may be researched.
The new law requires teachers and school employees statewide to submit fingerprints to the Texas Education Agency, which will run them through an FBI national database. As most schools go back into session this month, districts will be required to fingerprint applicants for all school jobs.
The state is expected to pick-up the tab for the process, which is estimated at $50 per employee.
It is not clear when the state's finger print caravan will make its stop it Katy. Austin ISD was the first district in the state to submit its employees to the process. Officials estimate it will take 80 days to finger print the district's 6,600 person staff.
Katy ISD has an estimated 6,500 employees and has not been immune to improper relationships between teachers and students.
In 2005 Timothy Williford was accused of peeping on a 16-year-old girl in her home. He was immediately fired
Last year 28-year-old Emily Willis, a first year teacher at McDonald High School was charged with sexual assault after she was found with a student in the backseat of a car. She too was fired and later pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault.
The new program will serve as a supplement to the types of checks already done by Katy ISD.
Forty-three other states require national criminal background checks for certified educators.
Before the new law went into effect, , Texas only required checks for those certified since 2003. Since that time, more than 200 candidates for certification have been found to have serious offenses on their records, including sexual misconduct and crimes against children, according to State Senator Florence Shapiro, (R-Plano) who authored the bill
"As recently as 2004-2005, the State Board of Educator Certification found that 66 certified teachers were registered sex offenders," she said.
State officials have said it will be up to individual school districts to review offenses revealed by the background check.
Criminal background checks are nothing new to Katy ISD, as the district has been looking into the past of its teachers for several years.
Katy ISD spokesman Steve Stanford said teachers and substitute teachers are subject to two background checks before being assigned a classroom. "The first one is done during a job application review. We run a check through the Department of Public Safety," he said.
A second, more thorough check, Stanford said, is conducted by a third party contractor should district officials decide to offer an applicant a job. Applicants are required to list each county in which they have lived so criminal records may be researched.
The new law requires teachers and school employees statewide to submit fingerprints to the Texas Education Agency, which will run them through an FBI national database. As most schools go back into session this month, districts will be required to fingerprint applicants for all school jobs.
The state is expected to pick-up the tab for the process, which is estimated at $50 per employee.
It is not clear when the state's finger print caravan will make its stop it Katy. Austin ISD was the first district in the state to submit its employees to the process. Officials estimate it will take 80 days to finger print the district's 6,600 person staff.
Katy ISD has an estimated 6,500 employees and has not been immune to improper relationships between teachers and students.
In 2005 Timothy Williford was accused of peeping on a 16-year-old girl in her home. He was immediately fired
Last year 28-year-old Emily Willis, a first year teacher at McDonald High School was charged with sexual assault after she was found with a student in the backseat of a car. She too was fired and later pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault.
