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What is Required for Submission of the Lease School Certification of Fingerprinting Compliance?

October 18, 2021 | Charter Administration, Personnel Management

It's time for your charter school to consummate the Annual Fingerprinting Certification and Argument of Compliance, due to TEA by Nov 19, 2021.

Background Information

The 2007 Texas Legislature passed Senate Neb ix requiring fingerprint-based criminal background reviews for certain school employees in Texas Public schools. Senate Bill 9 is codified in Texas Educational activity Code (TEC), Chapter 22, Subchapter C.

State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) Rules regarding the national criminal history reviews of certificate holders are constitute in Chapter 232, Subchapter B of the Texas Administrative Lawmaking.
Commissioner Rules regarding criminal history reviews are found in Affiliate 153, Subchapter DD of the Texas Administrative Lawmaking.
Statute codified in Texas Didactics Code 22.083-22.087relates to the national criminal history reviews of certified teachers, lease school employees, not-certified staff, contractors, and substitutes.

What Is Required?

To ensure that schools are following this regulation, the Texas Pedagogy Agency requires the Master Operating Officer (typically the Superintendent) of every open-enrollment charter schoolhouse to certify annually to the commissioner that their school has complied with Texas Education Lawmaking, Section 22.085, relating to the employment of individuals convicted of certain offenses.

Chapter 22, Subchapter C, of the TEC requires charter schools to ensure that certain individuals who are fingerprinted to undergo a national criminal history records review, and the other individuals to undergo a name-based criminal history tape data review.

A Certification of Compliance survey was designed to assist charters in fulfilling this statutory requirement past confirming that they accept complied with all the duties imposed past TEC §22.085. Those duties include:

Performing all required criminal history checks on employees
Ensuring that all commune contractors perform criminal history checks on contractor employees who take the opportunity for direct, unsupervised contact with the district'southward students
Discharging or refusing to hire whatever individual who has been bedevilled of an offense described in TEC §22.085(a)
Non assuasive any contractor employee who has been convicted of an law-breaking described in TEC §22.085(a) to serve at the commune or charter

How Tin I Be Sure My Charter Is In Compliance?

Did y'all miss our online class on Fingerprinting Compliance?

How Do I Fulfill the Submission Requirement?

It'due south easy!

Get the required form here: https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/district-compliance-certification.pdf
The CEO or Superintendent must sign, notarize and submit this form via e-mail to FingerprintingCompliance@tea.texas.gov by Nov 19, 2021.

Upon submission, an email acknowledging receipt will be issued inside 1 week. This electronic mail must be kept as documentation of meeting the requirement of a timely submission.

What Happens if I Fail to Submit?

If you lot fail to certify, your charter school could confront these consequences:

Inclusion in a permanent public notice that lists your lease, along with other districts and charters also lacking compliance, to take failed to certify compliance with fingerprinting and background check requirements
A special accreditation investigation equally defined under TEC 39.057
An investigation of the Superintendent or Chief Operating Officer who has violated TEC 11.201(d)(13) or TAC 249.15 by failing to complete the certification as required.

Worried You Take Not Met the Compliance Requirements?

We can help! First by reviewing our Fingerprinting Compliance online form, which will detail all y'all demand to know about setting up an effective and efficient fingerprinting system for your charter school.

Bank check out our recommended four Piece of cake steps to Compliance to increase the safety of all staff and students:

Get together a full staff list. The payroll register is a good identify to start.
Gather a listing of all contractors on site who may exist unaccompanied during school hours (spoken language therapist, diagnostician, custodial, caterer, maintenance, etc.). Look at your vendor listing over the last 12 months to help place all contractors.
Review your subscribed list from the DPS site to the above listing. Practise they lucifer?
One last step — be certain the CHRI results have been reviewed for each employee. Employ a checklist to ensure that each employee's record has been reviewed, and the records practise not conflict with the rules for employees and contractors in the state of Texas. (Section 22.085). By subscribing each of your employees to your charter, you lot will receive arrest updates on current staff.

If yous accept not been through these steps and cannot verify that all staff, substitute staff, and eligible contractors have been fingerprinted and subscribed to your charter, yous may be out of compliance. More chiefly, this could put your students at a prophylactic hazard.

Set for Help from the Experts?

Feeling a little overwhelmed? Lease Schoolhouse Success can aid! Take our Fingerprinting Compliance online course, or look into the Hr services CSS provides and permit the experts support your HR efforts.
Associated TEA Observe: https://tea.texas.gov/most-tea/news-and-multimedia/correspondence/taa-letters/2021-22-annual-fingerprinting-certification-and-argument-of-compliance
Visit the Charter School Community Roundtable to ask questions, become answers and discuss this topic now.