PRESS RELEASE
MAINE EDUCATORS AGAINST FINGERPRINTING (MEAF)
April 19, 2000
An official of the FBI has released a document which appears to show
that requests made to the Bureau for national criminal history background
checks at the discretion of school superintendents are in fact fully
acceptable to the FBI.
This information was obtained in a phone interview between a
representative of Maine Educators Against Fingerprinting (MEAF) and a
representative of the Access Integrity Unit of the FBI, the West Virginia
unit of the FBI that coordinates enabling legislation for the submission of
fingerprints for licensing, employment, and suitability purposes. The FBI
representative--who said Bureau rules prohibited her from being named in
the press, but who would be available to concerned legislators--explained
that such discretionary requests are possible under the Volunteers for
Children Act (VCA), also known as the Foley Bill. She followed up the
interview by providing MEAF with a faxed copy of a Criminal Justice
Information Services document, "The Volunteers for Children Act - Amending
the National Child Protection Act."
According to the document, "Under the VCA, a qualified entity's [a
school system is a qualified entity] decision to request a background check
is discretionary....The qualified entity may, therefore, elect to submit
fingerprints on some applicants/employees/volunteers and not on
others....Additionally, should a state require a criminal history
background check of a class of employees only meeting certain criteria
(e.g., residing in the state less than eight years), the VCA again could be
used for that class of employees falling outside such criteria."
The FBI representative was given the current situation in the Maine
Legislature, where a Senate amendment to the current school personnel
fingerprinting law was first approved last week by the House. It was then
rejected a day later after a legislator told the House members during
debate that the amendment was flawed because discretionary checks, as
provided for in the so-called "new hires" amendment, were not acceptable
for processing by the FBI. This ruling is believed to have been supplied
by the State Police, although MEAF has no documents to that effect.
The FBI representative was told how the "new hires" amendment, offered
by Senator Robert Murray, outlined three classes of "new hires": applicants
for certificates from out-of-state; first-time applicants from within
Maine; and the controversial group, those certified employees changing jobs
from one school system to another. It was the amendment's granting the
hiring superintendents discretionary power to require fingerprinting and
checks that seems to have lost House support when it was declared
unacceptable to the FBI.
The FBI representative, however, said,
"The discretionary requests can be submitted under the Volunteers for
Children Act ."
The document also raised the question of the value of fingerprinting
and national criminal history record checks when compared to other means:
"...the [House] Committee [on the Judiciary] does not believe that all
occupations and volunteer positions within that broad definition [of 'child
care provider'] merit the time and expense of criminal history records
checks. There are other means available to protect children from abuse,
including the checking of prior employment history and character references
and proper training and supervision of employees and volunteers. The
Committee expects that the States, in deciding which types of categories of
positions require criminal history background checks, will consider the
degree to which a particular position or child care activity offers
opportunites to those who abuse children. The Committee expects that the
States will find, for example, that positions involving long-term or
on-going contact with children in one-on-one situations merit criminal
history record checks and that positions that involve infrequent direct
contact or contact only in group settings do not merit such checks."