Austin School District Fighting to Withhold Background Check Details
by Jason Morris
Statewide teachers’ group and Austin administrators say releasing details of criminal background checks would unfairly subject educators to public scrutiny.
By Laura Heinauer and Regina Dennis
The Austin school district and statewide teacher groups are contesting a ruling by the Texas attorney general’s office that the district must comply with an open records request from the American-Statesman seeking information on background checks that revealed that 310 district employees have criminal histories.
Texas lawmakers recently passed a law requiring all public school districts to fingerprint certified educators and certain other workers by September 2011 in advance of mandatory national criminal background checks.
The Austin district was selected as a pilot site. Of the 310 workers found to have criminal backgrounds as of Feb. 28, the district has not said how many were charged with felonies, how many had convictions or how many were teachers.
In March, the American-Statesman asked the district for documents showing a school-by-school breakdown of what crimes were revealed in the background checks and the outcomes of those cases. The newspaper did not ask for names or other identifying information.
The district, joined by two statewide groups representing teachers, argued that releasing the requested information would violate employees’ privacy rights and is not in the public interest.
The district says state law suggests that it should not release information about the nature of the arrests and whether charges were filed.
Under the Texas Public Information Act, government agencies must respond to written requests for documents within 10 working days or ask the state attorney general for permission to withhold the information from the public.
Tags: school background checks
Subscribe to our podcast!