Fingerprinting Resource Center
Senate Bill (SB) 9, passed by the Legislature in 2007, requires most public and charter school employees and even some contractors and school volunteers to undergo criminal background checks. Most employees must submit to a national criminal history review conducted by the FBI, a process that requires employees to be fingerprinted.
Current law requires fingerprinting of certified employees to be completed by Sept. 1, 2011. School districts must ensure that
noncertified employees hired after Jan. 1, 2008, are fingerprinted before they begin work in a district.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is implementing the fingerprinting process
for certified educators on a rolling basis over the next three years. TEA will
notify each school district when it is time for district employees to be
fingerprinted. The full schedule will not be released to the public, but you can
find out which districts have begun the process.
The education community recognizes that this process is an unfortunate but necessary step we must take to ensure the safety of students and public school faculty. However, the process raises many questions for educators, from questions of procedure to questions about who has access to background check results.
To answer some of these questions and keep educators informed of ATPE’s ongoing efforts to protect the confidentiality of the background check results, ATPE has created this Fingerprinting Resource Center. Please check back frequently for updates and share this link with your colleagues.
The process
Background on SB 9
Privacy concerns
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