BiometricsMass. teachers, child-care employees to go through national background checks
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Department of Early Education and Care, and the Executive Office of Public Safety and Securityannounced in March that educators and employees working in schools and childcare centers will have to go through a national background check. Teachers and other employees will have to pay for their own background checks.
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Department of Early Education and Care, and the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security announced in March that educators and employees working in schools and childcare centers will have to go through a national background check. The announcement came after twenty school departments and several day care centers participated in a pilot program. Mass Live reports that the required background check is based on a law signed by Governor Deval Patrick in January 2013, which made Massachusetts the last state in the nation to require national criminal background checks for all employees who work closely with children.
Schools in Massachusetts currently check all employees’ and volunteers’ backgrounds though the state’s Criminal Offender Record Information system (CORI), which is limited to records in the state, but is free of charge. Under the new law, certified teachers will pay $55 to have their fingerprints taken, while library assistants, bus drivers, and noncertified teachers will pay $35. A provision in the law allows employees to file for a hardship to have the fee waived.
Though the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) worked with legislators to draft the bill, and most educators and unions agree with the law, many complain that the fee may be a burden to teachers. “We feel the state or the district should pick up the cost of the background checks,” said Paul Toner, president of MTA.
“It is sort of an unfunded mandate,” Timothy Collins, president of the Springfield Education Association said. “Unions feel that should be bargained as part of contracts.”
State legislators who support the law insist that the $55 fee is fair since some states like New York charge as much as $100 a person, while a few states do not require employees to pay a fee.
MorphoTrust USA, the company contracted to gather the information needed for the background checks, plans to open thirty-four sites in the state, it currently operates eight locations.
Teachers union members have been assured that fingerprints will not be shared with police or other law enforcement agencies. Toner has said that results of the background checks will be kept confidential, and only made available to the school districts’ superintendent or human resource director.
