Utah to Improve Background Check Process in Public Schools

The recent audit of the background check process at Utah public schools has resulted in findings that were not very comforting to state legislators and school district officials. Audit findings revealed that the current procedures for pre-employment criminal screening have failed to discover applicant criminal records as part of the background check.

Out of 1200 public school employees at 32 Utah schools, 17 or 1.4% were discovered to have the types of criminal convictions that are considered of special concern when closely working with children, which include felony sex assault, indecent exposure, aggravated assault, theft and drug use. Although the legislative auditors deemed the percentage of problems small, the committee recognized that when it comes to protecting children, the usual standards are not applicable; the number of findings is too high.

Part of the problem stems from the fact that not all the employees had the convictions on their record at the time they applied for employment. Of the 17, only nine were convicted before they were hired; six got in trouble after getting the job, and two got convicted both before and after they were hired. The moral of the story is that under such sensitive circumstances a pre-employment criminal background check is not sufficient; mandatory routine post-employment background checks of all employees are highly recommended as well.