What is the district's responsibility to be in compliance with Senate Bill 9 (the Fingerprinting Bill)?

Texas Governor Rick Perry signed Senate Bill 9 into law on June 15, 2007, which mandates greatly expanded criminal history information reviews for school employees, including national criminal history background checks based on the submission of fingerprints for all certified and currently employed educators and substitute teachers by September 1, 2011. To assist schools in complying with this new requirement to make Texas schools safer, on September 21, 2007 Governor Perry, in conjunction with the Lieutenant Governor and Texas Speaker of the House, issued a joint letter to the Texas Education Agency (TEA). This letter requested that the T.E.A. fund the $1.2 million required to make Texas schools compliant. The Governor's letter requested that TEA pull the funds necessary from future fiscal years if possible, and promised reimbursement through future supplemental appropriations.

At this time, school districts in Texas are required to do the following under SB 9:

• Conduct greatly expanded criminal history information reviews for school employees including national criminal history background checks based on the submission of fingerprints for all certified and currently employed educators and substitute teachers by September 1, 2011; and
  
  
• Allow TEA to certify whether certain charter school employees, substitute teachers, and non-certified school employees are employable under the standards imposed by the bill.

At this time no fingerprinting is required on the part of schools or their employees, and any fingerprinting that is done now will not comply with the clearinghouse requirements of SB 9.

To find resources that help you spread the word or implement security solutions during Texas Safe Schools Week, or to find out more about complying with Senate Bill 9, contact the LearnSafe™ Initiative at (866) SAFE-024 or by email at info@learnsafe.org.