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Illinois School Board Journal
November-December 2000

It's the law in Illinois

by James Russell

James Russell is IASB director of publications.

Illinois law, not board policy, has been largely responsible for the dearth of criminals being hired by Illinois public schools.

The School Code, amended last year by Public Act 91-885, bars certain convicted criminals from being employed by a school. It also requires all applicants to submit to and authorize a criminal background check and fingerprinting via state police. School districts are prohibited from knowingly hiring anyone who has been convicted of committing or attempting to commit one of any number of crimes covered under the act, including murder, drug trafficking, sex offenses, theft, among others classified as Class X felonies.

According to Melinda L. Selbee, general counsel for the Illinois Association of School Boards, district compliance with the law is very routine. "This is really not a school board issue. It's all a matter of state law," she said.

And the law, Selbee said, works. It not only covers employees but contractors as well.

In Illinois, such individuals are "forever barred" from working in public schools. The law was amended this summer to extend that authority to prospective applicants who have been convicted of similar offenses in other states during the seven years prior to application.

"It came up as an issue involving park district employees but was extended to include school districts," she said of the amendment.

The same cannot be said of all states.

Currently, about two-thirds of U.S. states mandate criminal background checks and fingerprint checks of school employees. Among the remaining states, 13 require no checks; four require fingerprint checks only; six require background checks only; and several others make one or both checks optional, according to the 1998-99 Manual of the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification.

The Illinois Legislature has left it up to local school districts whether to perform background checks of volunteers.

The January 2000 issue of Policy Reference Education Subscription Service (PRESS) suggests that districts review their policies and procedures on volunteers. The sample school board policy on Community Resource Persons and Volunteers was edited to provide a parameter for staff-use of volunteers and to require screening of volunteers. It prohibits a "child sex offender," as defined in state law, from being a volunteer. A sample administrative procedure and form on securing and screening volunteers were also distributed. The form, to be completed by volunteers, facilitates screening volunteers. A school official records on the form that the volunteer's name was not on the sex offender list distributed under the Child Sex Offender and Murderer Community Notification Law. The procedure and form allow a principal to request that a volunteer submit to a criminal background investigation if the individual will be working over a long period of time in direct contact with students where no staff member is continuously present or in other situations where a check would be prudent.

"We can't expect school boards to do extensive checks of every volunteer. It would be too expensive and we would end up with fewer willing volunteers," Selbee said. "This is not about playground or lunchroom supervisors. But it is an issue a board needs to discuss; are the benefits of using volunteers worth the risks, and if so, how can the district minimize those risks?"

Other states have posed similar policies as an option to local boards.

Richard J. Dickinson, general counsel to the Ohio School Boards Association, said state law there does not require criminal checks of volunteers, but notes that school boards have the authority and are recommended to exercise that authority to adopt such policies.

"Although criminal records checks are required to be conducted only for employees who will have students in their care, custody or control, liability concerns warrant school districts giving serious consideration to policies which would require that all employees and volunteers who will come in contact with students be required to submit to criminal records checks," he said in the October 2000 issue of OSBA Journal.

At this point, there is no urgency to amend Illinois laws to extend criminal background checks beyond conviction records. For one thing, the law is working. For another, civil rights laws prohibit schools from discriminating against employees based on arrest records only. "If you do decide to perform background checks on some, but not all, volunteers, make sure the selection criteria is non-discriminatory," adds the January 2000 issue of PRESS.