Senate Bill 9 requires national criminal history background checks for all school employees and other persons who have contact with students in a school setting. In order to implement the requirements of SB9 the (Department of Public Safety) DPS Clearinghouse was established.  This clearinghouse is a database containing an employee’s national criminal history based on fingerprints, photos, and other documents of identification.  This will enable school districts, (Texas Education Agency) TEA, and (State Board of Educator Certification)  SBEC to access current national criminal history and receive updates of subsequent criminal history of employees, vendors and contracted employees.

The bill requires all SBEC certified educators and substitutes to be fingerprinted by September 1, 2011 (approximately 400,000 in Texas) and requires all non-certified personnel and contractors hired after January 1, 2008 to be fingerprinted prior to employment.
The process for implementation of SB 9 for certified employees and substitutes will proceed as follows:

• Districts will be randomly selected by TEA based on size and resources available to initiate fingerprinting
• District will provide list of educators and substitutes to TEA
• TEA will determine who will require fingerprints and these educators and substitutes will have 80 days to comply or they become inactive/unemployable
• Fingerprinting will be processed by the sole source DPS provider for fingerprinting, L-1 Identity Solutions
• Active certified personnel will be fingerprinted and photographed at no cost to individuals or district if they were reported in the PEIMS report for 06-07
• Certified employees will be subject to the guidelines in Chapter 249 of the Texas Administrative Code and districts will make determination of employability if local policy or procedures warrant
• It is anticipated that the “clearinghouse” will send notification of new criminal activity subsequent to initial fingerprint results.  Once an educator is entered into the DPS clearinghouse and a subsequent arrest occurs, the district will be automatically notified of the activity by DPS.  The district will then access the clearinghouse at a cost of $1.00 per record

The process for non-certified employees will proceed as follows:    

• District will upload required information to SBEC online
• TEA will email a list to the district identifying those individuals who are subject to SB90 fingerprinting along with an authorization form FASTPass  for each person
• A district person will be responsible for distributing the FASTPass forms to the individual applicants
• An appointment must be scheduled online with the DPS digital fingerprint vendor, L-1 Identity Solutions and all required fees must be paid by credit card or approved debit card before the appointment is finalized
• The applicant must take their FASTPass Fingerprint form, receipt from their online payment and photo identification to their scheduled appointment
• The district will automatically be subscribed to each applicant in the DPS  Clearinghouse after the applicant has been printed
• When the criminal history report is made available in the DPS Clearinghouse, DPS will notify the district by email of the individual’s criminal history activity
• The district will make determination of employability based on  local policy or procedures: individually review the criminal history as to the extent and nature of the person’s past criminal activity, the age of the person when the crime was committed, amount of time that has elapsed since the  person’s last criminal activity, and conduct and work activity of the person before and after the criminal activity
• TEA will also review these records and determine non-employability under the guidelines stated in SB 9

o The district may withdraw an employment offer at any time if there is activity on an applicant’s criminal history; the district does not have to wait until TEA renders a decision before withdrawing the offer of employment
o If the employee has a criminal history and resigns or is discharged by the district, the district must notify TEA immediately, and no further review is completed

• If employment is extended to the applicant, the district will continue their subscription to that applicant.  The district will receive notification of any subsequent criminal activity after the review is completed.  To view the subsequent activity, there will be a $1.00 fee included per applicant.
• The district shall obtain name-based criminal history record information on all non-certified employees hired prior to January 1, 2008.  No time is specified so that presumably means as soon as possible.

              
SB9 requires a review of the criminal history record information of shared services arrangements and contractors if:

• Employees of shared services arrangements (SSAs) perform duties on school property or at another location where students are regularly present
• Employees of contractors with continuing duties related to contracted services have direct contact with students
What is Direct Contact?
• An area where students are physically present or passing, or in areas to which students have access
• Any projects involving renovations, additions, repairs and/or maintenance at an active campus, or new construction adjacent to an existing campus, may however, fall under the statute in certain circumstances
• Any project that requires a vendor to work in a classroom, corridor, restroom, cafeteria, gymnasium, office, parking lot or any other part of a school building or site where students will be present or allowed access, is one that involves direct contact or a reasonable potential for direct contact with students

Vendors / Contractors can contact rcasey@dickinsonisd.org for:

• Instructions to school district contractors/vendors regarding criminal background searches under SB9
• Certifying affidavits of criminal history record information review for employees
• Schedule A for employees hired before January 1, 2008
• Schedule B for employees hired on or after January 1, 2008