Fingerprinting Cost Gets Thumbs Down School Workers In Some Districts Forced To Pay For Own Fbi Check

Like their peers throughout Idaho, school district employees here are trooping to police offices to be fingerprinted.

But unlike workers in most other districts, they are paying $40 for their own background checks.

“A lot of schoolyard duty and crosswalk people may not even make $40 in two weeks, and here we’re making them pay,” said Rep. Jeff Alltus, R-Coeur d’Alene.

The new law requiring an FBI fingerprint check is aimed at making sure that people with criminal backgrounds are kept away from children. Anyone who has worked for a school district five years or less is required to participate.

Alltus was among lawmakers who voted in favor of the law early this year. But he says he’ll try to change parts of it, such as the requirement that the employees pay. He said he’s heard a lot of complaints.

Although the law specifies that employees pay, most school districts have picked up the tab, according to a spokeswoman for the Idaho Education Association.

The Post Falls School Board decided to pay for employees who were hired before July 1 of this year. It seemed fair not to impose the expense on people for whom fingerprinting wasn’t a condition of employment, said Superintendent Richard Harris.

“It’s a cost, but it’s not a major cost,” he said of the district’s contribution.

Kootenai County’s other large school districts, Coeur d’Alene School District and Lakeland, did not pay the $40.

“We had about 600 employees that needed it done,” said personnel director Kelly Ostrom.

Coeur d’Alene employees have until the end of November to get the fingerprinting done at the sheriff’s or police departments. Some are upset because they had to have fingerprints taken two years ago. The school district paid then, but the cost was only $10.

Those background checks were only done on a regional basis, because at the time there was no legislation authorizing districts to tap into the FBI fingerprinting system. The FBI wouldn’t use the prints from two years ago.

Gretta Shay, president of the Coeur d’Alene Education Association, has had to explain that to some disgruntled members of the teachers’ union.

The teachers tried and failed during this year’s contract negotiations to get the district to pay the $40, said Shay. But despite some members’ complaints about the cost, the association doesn’t object to fingerprinting.

“We don’t mind, if it protects the students,” Shay said.

, DataTimes