The Austin Independent School District kicked off the first of a series of state-mandated national background checks Tuesday, starting with Superintendent Pat Forgione, whose fingerprints were taken in a public photo op with Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott.
AISD is the first district to conduct national background checks under a state law passed in 2007, requiring some 1 million teachers and public school employees to be fingerprinted over the next four years. The law was drafted in response to an alarming rise in the number of sexual misconduct cases investigated by the TEA. According to the agency, the number of sexual misconduct investigations skyrocketed from 110 in 1997 to 251 in 2007.
Currently, the district is only required to run a statewide search, but under the new program, employees will have their fingerprints entered into an FBI database to detect crimes committed in other states. The background checks are mainly aimed at felony crimes, but misdemeanors will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, according to the TEA. The law only applies to teachers and nonteaching employees hired after Jan. 1.
This article appears in 2007.