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The State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) met Friday, September 7, 2007, to propose rules (procedures and timelines) to comply with Senate Bill 9 (the fingerprinting bill), signed into law by the governor on June 15, 2007. All certified educators employed by a public school entity will be required to submit their fingerprints sometime between January 2008 and September 1, 2011. This is a critical issue for all TCTA members. Failure to submit fingerprints for a criminal background check, as specified by SBEC, will cause your certificate to become inactive, and endangers your ability to continue employment with a school district. Educators should review, and if needed update, any information with SBEC to ensure the notification to submit fingerprints will reach them in a timely manner.

Senate Bill 9, passed during Texas’ 2007 legislative session, authorizes and requires criminal history background checks for most classes of educators and school employees, including not just administrators, faculty and support staff, but also substitute teachers, student teachers and volunteers other than parents, guardians or grandparents of students enrolled in the district. In effect, virtually all individuals who have direct contact with students in a public school setting will be required to undergo a criminal background check that includes fingerprinting. The legislation further specifies that individuals who have been convicted of certain kinds of serious crimes are ineligible for employment by a public school entity and may be subject to suspension or revocation of their teaching credentials.

Prior to the passage of SB 9, only new applicants for certification were required to undergo a criminal background check by SBEC. Although these individuals will not have to re-submit their fingerprints, staff at the Texas Education Agency (TEA) report approximately 400,000 certified educators must submit their fingerprints to SBEC for a criminal history review before September 1, 2011. In order to accomplish this goal, SBEC has proposed rules designed to establish the requirements and procedures to govern the process the agency will follow when collecting and processing fingerprints.

The proposed procedures specify that fingerprinting will be conducted on a district-by-district basis. Although numerous details have yet to be worked out, SBEC is proposing the following general procedure for collecting fingerprints:

  • School districts will receive notification of upcoming deadline for compliance
  • Districts must provide names and other identifying information for all certified educators employed by the district
  • Educators will receive initial correspondence via e-mail, allowing for 80 days to meet fingerprinting obligation
  • Educators will receive a reminder notification if obligation to submit fingerprints has not been met after an initial 25 days
  • Educators’ certification will become inactive if obligation to submit fingerprints has not been met after 80 days

SBEC hopes to begin the fingerprinting process by January 2008. However, there are significant questions about the fingerprinting process that have to be answered. For example, it is unclear who will pay the fees associated with the collection of fingerprints. The legislature considered this issue when it adopted SB 9 and TCTA has consistently taken the position that educators should not be required to pay this fee, which costs approximately $45. No final decision has been made regarding this issue. Additionally, SBEC staff is still working with the contracted vendor regarding the location of fingerprinting stations. Finally, SBEC will have to address problems that cannot be properly evaluated until the process begins, such as the amount of time the vendor will require to process the fingerprints.

Another sensitive issue that must be addressed is the unfortunate reality that, for some educators, fingerprinting will expose a previously unknown criminal history. The proposed rule indicates SBEC will conduct a review of the educator’s criminal history in the same manner as it would had it received the information through any other means. In other words, SBEC will review criminal history on a case-by-case basis. Moreover, SB 9 provides that an educator’s criminal history information may be reviewed by an employer school district. Although SBEC may choose to not take action on certain types of criminal histories, there may still be employment ramifications for educators at the local level.

It is important to remember that although some educators will possibly be required to submit fingerprints as early as January 2008, others will not be selected for fingerprinting for some time. SBEC staff indicated they anticipate changes will be made to respond to difficulties as they arise during the process.

TCTA staff is working closely with SBEC and TEA to help ensure educators are informed of their obligations under the law and take the necessary steps to comply. We will continue to keep you informed regarding the entire process.

Web posted: 11/02/07