Oklahoma Schools Lacking in Background Check Policy

What do the 532 school districts in the State of Oklahoma all have in common? They all share the lack of a standardized background check policy for substitute teachers. In a recent news report, the “Oklahoman” offered a look at how this disorganized background check standard has begun to result in the wrong people leading the class for the day.

State certification starts with teachers and other members of permanent faculty. However, noncertified substitutes, volunteers and other individuals aren’t necessarily required to submit to a background screening. Wait, really?

Yes, really. It turns out that each individual district typically assesses its own needs and adopts a background screening procedure for substitute personnel. Some schools go directly to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI), which conducts a thorough, fingerprint-based background screening. Other school districts may go through the State Board of Education, which in turn will conduct a background check through the OSBI.

However, as one gets further away from Tulsa and Oklahoma City, districts may begin relying more on private background screening agencies or even conduct the search on their own. Theoretically, a district could even rely on Google to do its background checks if they felt it was in line with existing needs and policies, which would definitely leave them open to bad hiring decisions based on misinformation.

This melting pot of policies may provide each district in saying what’s best for them, but it can also generate loopholes and opportunities for all the wrong people. One district’s background screening process might deter creeps from applying, but the district next door might have an entirely policy in place that could effectively be an open door to criminals.

Duncan County has already had to hurriedly adjust its background screening policy. The school now requires national criminal checks after Erwin Johnson, a 24-year old substitute teacher, was tagged with felony charges for lewd proposals to a child after sending all the wrong text messages to a 16-year old student.

Because of the incident, the Duncan District adopted a new nationwide criminal search to supplement the statewide search already in place. A national search would have caught Johnson’s 2008 2nd degree Theft conviction and raised red flags for the hiring manager screening substitute teacher candidates.

Sherry Labyer, public school superintendant in Duncan, said “We don’t knowingly employ anyone who has been convicted of a felony.” Unfortunately, NOT knowing in this situation shows itself to have equally disastrous results.

There is one consensus shared by the district: There is a problem, but as for fixing it, they’re still working on that.

Jeff Mills is the executive director of the Oklahoma State School Board of Administration and says “It’s an issue. It is a situation and I don’t know what the immediate solution is considering the budget constraints.” Mills thinks an administrative database that is directly accessible by the districts could be one viable solution.

In the meantime, the state’s 532 districts continue to get along as best they can with what they have in place. Budget constraints, understaffed districts needing substitutes to man the classrooms, and scant solutions to a big problem all contribute to the lack of a defined background check policy keeping students safe and the criminals at bay.