Batt Signs Law Requiring Background Checks All New Hires By School Districts Must Submit Fingerprints

Next school year, many school district employees will have to submit fingerprints for a criminal background check, and pay the $40 it will cost.

Gov. Phil Batt on Wednesday signed into law a bill requiring the background checks.

The measure was amended from its original form, which would have required all school district employees to go through the checks.

The amended version requires new hires, or people who have worked for school districts less than five years, to have a federal criminal background check.

It will be up to districts whether veteran employees have to have criminal background checks. If veterans are ordered to go through the screening system, the school district will have to pay.

Sponsors argued it would be a way for Idaho to weed out teachers or others with a record of child crimes in other states.

House sponsor Rep. Ron Black, R-Twin Falls, told House members when the bill passed in February that the state has thousands of “conscientious, hardworking administrators and school personnel.”

“If we are to keep Idaho that way, we need to pass this bill,” he said. “It takes only one bad apple to ruin it for the rest. This bill is for the bad apple that has gotten away with these kinds of activities in the past.”

Schools Superintendent Anne Fox said it’s a good idea.

“They send a clear message to the patrons of our state that we are serious about setting higher standards and levels of accountability in our public schools,” she said, after Batt signed the bill.

“The real issue here is protecting our children. We have excellent teachers in the system and we want to keep them and let it be known that the state of Idaho will only hire the best,” Fox said.

The measure lists a number of crimes, mainly sex crimes against children, that can be grounds for immediate dismissal if they turn up in a teacher’s background.

The new measure applies to all school district employees, including administrators, teachers and support personnel.