Panel Approves Bill Requiring Background Check On Teachers

A bill that would require all applicants for an Idaho teaching certificate to have a criminal background check was introduced Monday by a unanimous vote of the House Education Committee.

State Superintendent Anne Fox said that, as things stand now, a person “can be a new teacher in Idaho and lie on the certification application about a criminal background, and we can’t check on it.”

Under Fox’s proposal, every applicant would be fingerprinted. Both state and federal criminal records would be checked. An applicant who had committed a crime or sex offense would be denied a teaching certificate.

The bill is a modification of a similar one that failed in the Idaho House of Representatives last year by a 34-37 vote. In that proposal, every school employee would have had the background check.

The new version of the bill makes checks on support staff optional.

“It was too restrictive. As a compromise, we came up with a more watered-down bill, but it’s a start,” said Fox.

But Rep. Don Pischner, R-Coeur d’Alene, said, “I only feel half-safe.”

Though he will support the bill, Pischner said, “I’m more worried about the potato peeler back in the kitchen than my child’s teacher.”

The Coeur d’Alene School District began fingerprinting all of its employees in October 1994 and already runs checks on all of its prospective employees.

, DataTimes