House bill could help schools detect dangerous teachers

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2004 | 9:34 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A bill pending in Congress would help fast-growing school districts like Clark County identify teacher applicants with criminal histories, a Nevada official told a House panel Tuesday.

Not all states are sharing all criminal information about teachers through a national database, Barbara Belak, Clark County School District human resources administrative assistant, told a House Education and Workforce subcommittee.

Clark County checks applicant fingerprints with the FBI, but not all states contribute data, Belak said.

In addition, 29 states are not members of the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact, established in 1998 to serve as an efficient clearinghouse for states to share information. Nevada is one of the 21 states that are members and rely on the compact for information about new hires.

The district also checks confidential references for criminal behavior and asks 20 specific questions about criminal histories as part of the application process. The district is doing "everything in its power" to identify bad applicants, Belak said.

"The bad news is: it isn't good enough," she said.

Every year Clark County fires teachers for drugs, violence against students and sexual misconduct, Belak testified. She noted that the district fired about 60 people over a three-year period -- less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the 25,000-member workforce.

Belak testified in support of legislation introduced by Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., aimed at goading all states into participating in the compact.

The bill needs revision, Porter said Tuesday after witnesses said that it would unfairly limit federal schools funding to states that don't participate in the compact. Porter said he planned to change the bill to offer incentives, possibly grant money, to states that participate instead of a punishment against those that don't.

The revised bill likely will not pass this year, but Porter hopes to pursue it in the next session, he said.

"It's a beginning," Porter said, adding that the high-profile cases of teacher firings in Clark County inspired his legislation.

Clark County, the fifth largest school district in the nation, faces the daunting task of hiring 1,500 and 2,000 new teachers each year in a state that produces only about 600 teaching graduates a year. That forces the district to recruit heavily in other states. That creates a problem because it is easier to obtain criminal information about applicants inside the state.

Smaller states and low-growth states typically do not seem to have as many problems as Nevada in hiring teachers, Porter said. The states are not as motivated to join the compact, he said.