May 8, 2023

The Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) district recently announced new measures to increase the effectiveness of its employment screening program. This program would introduce a new requirement for all school employees to undergo background checks regularly. Furthermore, they must report any arrests while employed in the school system.

This new expansion to the school’s background check procedures comes after an investigation concerning the existing hiring process. According to this investigation, the hiring process had “systemic gaps.” For example, the school commissioned an investigator after last year’s discovery concerning a middle school counselor. This counselor worked with children for months despite a conviction of soliciting prostitution for a minor.

The school district terminated the counselor after learning about the conviction and the five-year sentence of supervised probation. Subsequent investigation determined that the Chesterfield Police Department attempted to email the FCPS superintendent the day after the counselor’s arrest. Unfortunately, they received the wrong email, which bounced back to a spam folder and remained unread.

Shortly after termination, the Virginia State Police arrested the employee for failing to provide the state sex offender registry with accurate and complete information. Since the independent investigation of its procedures, the FCPS has made significant changes, including this new regulation.

The new regulation took effect on March 12th, 2023. As such, all employees must undergo screening through the National Sex Offender Registry as of May 2023. The law includes full-time, temporary, hourly, and substitutes who work in the district. Therefore, all district employees hired before August 2006 must submit fingerprints for the Virginia State Police and FBI to review this summer. Employees hired after this date with digital copies of their fingerprints will have their fingerprints submitted automatically.

Employees must disclose all arrests for felonies and misdemeanors to the district’s Office of Equity and Employee Relations (EER). They must also report other “acts that impact a person’s ability to work.” In addition, the FCPS district’s Department of Human Resources will periodically run criminal background checks. This new standard will ensure the district catches any unreported activity. If any background checks bring up concerning information, EER will notify the employee so they can respond.

Background checks like these are crucial to uphold the public’s safety, particularly for vulnerable populations. As such, working with a trusted background check provider with a reputation for speed and accuracy is essential.

Pre-employ makes background checks easy and reliable. Speak with a compliance expert today.

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