Criminal checks

The Dallas Morning News reports on a Dallas Independent School District (DISD) operation to deal with employees with a criminal past. Here’s the lead paragraph.

The Dallas Independent School District has fired, or forced to resign, 24 employees since November for failing to notify the district of arrests or court judgments for serious crimes, including indecent exposure, theft and felony assault, according to information received from DISD. The employees include nine teachers and a teacher’s assistant. DISD also has reported at least 141 educators to the Texas Education Agency for having a criminal background or for running afoul of district rules.

The firings came about because a Dallas Morning News investigation last year. The paper found that the DISD was in violation of several laws and administrative procedures involving the hiring of employees and the reporting of criminal histories to the Texas Education Agency.

Like many stories we’ve seen lately, the problem wasn’t having a rule or a law in place. The problem was following the rules in a timely way. In Dallas, for example, criminal background checks are supposed to be part of the hiring process. Background checks are also supposed to be run annually.

Those checks are supposed to support […]