National background searches at San Antonio's second-largest school district have turned up employee criminal records with 276 misdemeanor and four felony charges, ranging from traffic offenses to assault and burglary. About 6,500 North East Independent School District employees have been fingerprinted under a new state law aimed at improving safety in school districts, and the process uncovered 125 charges on auxiliary employees, 138 charges on teachers and 17 on administrators. Charges included theft by check, driving while intoxicated, driving under the influence, larceny, assault, public intoxication, malicious mischief, burglary and receiving stolen property.
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FROM MARCH 2008: The Austin (Texas) school district has fingerprinted about two-thirds of its 6,600 certified educators, and criminal histories have popped up for 256 employees after a search of a national crime database. Checks as of Feb. 20 found that 15 educators had felony criminal records, while the other 241 had misdemeanor criminal records. Because of a new law, Austin is the first district in the state to fingerprint its certified educators, including administrators and substitute teachers. (The Austin American-Statesman)
FROM FEBRUARY 2008: The massive undertaking of fingerprinting more than 11,000 San Antonio educators is already causing problems, creating backlogs and causing frustration in local schools. Fingerprinting school district employees has begun in the Northside and North East districts, the city's two largest school systems. Officials in both districts say that repeated equipment failure, technology problems and staffing issues are wasting teachers' time and making the process take much longer than anticipated.
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FROM DECEMBER 2007: The Austin (Texas) school district will be first in the state to try a fingerprinting system that requires public school employees to have national criminal background checks. Under a new state law, an estimated 392,000 Texas employees need to submit their fingerprints to the Texas Education Agency. All certified educators, including administrators and substitute teachers, must submit their fingerprints by September 2011. State officials say using Austin as a test site will allow them to tweak the rules and procedures as needed. (The Austin American-Statesman)
