What is Required for Submission of the Charter School Certification of Fingerprinting Compliance?

What is Required for Submission of the Charter School Certification of Fingerprinting Compliance?

November 2, 2023 | Charter Administration, Personnel Management

It’s time for your charter school to complete the Annual Fingerprinting Certification and Statement of Compliance, due to TEA by December 8, 2023.

Background Information

The 2007 Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 9 requiring fingerprint-based criminal background reviews for certain school employees in Texas Public schools. Senate Bill 9 is codified in Texas Education Code (TEC), Chapter 22, Subchapter C.

What Is Required?

To ensure that schools are following this regulation, the Texas Education Agency requires the Chief Operating Officer (typically the Superintendent) of every open-enrollment charter school to certify annually to the commissioner that their school has complied with Texas Education Code, Section 22.085, relating to the employment of individuals and contractors convicted of certain offenses.

Chapter 22, Subchapter C, of the TEC requires charter schools to ensure that certain individuals who are fingerprinted to undergo a national criminal history records review, and the other individuals to undergo a name-based criminal history record information review.

A Certification of Compliance survey was designed to assist charters in fulfilling this statutory requirement by confirming that they have complied with all the duties imposed by TEC §22.085. Those duties include:

  • Performing all required criminal history checks on employees
  • Ensuring that all district contractors perform criminal history checks on contractor employees who have the opportunity for direct, unsupervised contact with the district’s students
  • Discharging or refusing to hire any individual who has been convicted of an offense described in TEC §22.085(a)
  • Not allowing any contractor employee who has been convicted of an offense described in TEC §22.085(a) to serve at the district or charter

How Can I Be Sure My Charter Is In Compliance?

Did you miss our online course on Fingerprinting Compliance?

How Do I Fulfill the Submission Requirement?

It’s easy!

Upon submission, an email acknowledging receipt will be issued within 1 week. This email must be kept as documentation of meeting the requirement of a timely submission.

What Happens if I Fail to Submit?

If you fail to certify, your charter school could face these consequences:

  • Inclusion in a permanent public notice that lists your charter, along with other districts and charters also lacking compliance, to have failed to certify compliance with fingerprinting and background check requirements
  • A special accreditation investigation as defined under TEC 39.057
  • An investigation of the Superintendent or Chief Operating Officer who has violated TEC 11.201(d)(13) or TAC 249.15 by failing to complete the certification as required.

Worried You Have Not Met the Compliance Requirements?

We can help! Start by reviewing our Fingerprinting Compliance online course, which will detail all you need to know about setting up an effective and efficient fingerprinting system for your charter school.

Check out our recommended 4 Easy steps to Compliance to increase the safety of all staff and students:

  1. Gather a full staff list.  The payroll register is a good place to start.
  2. Gather a list of all contractors on site who may be unaccompanied during school hours (speech therapist, diagnostician, custodial, caterer, maintenance, etc.). Look at your vendor listing over the last 12 months to help identify all contractors.
  3. Review your subscribed list from the DPS site to the above list.  Do they match?
  4. One last step — be sure the CHRI results have been reviewed for each employee.  Use a checklist to ensure that each employee’s record has been reviewed, and the records do not conflict with the rules for employees and contractors in the state of Texas. (Section 22.085).  By subscribing each of your employees to your charter, you will receive arrest updates on current staff.

If you have not been through these steps and cannot verify that all staff, substitute staff, and eligible contractors have been fingerprinted and subscribed to your charter, you may be out of compliance. More importantly, this could put your students at a safety risk.

Ready for Help from the Experts?