School districts hopeful SB1 will speed up background checks

Bobbie Hayse, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.
·3 min read

Sep. 16—Officials from area school districts are hopeful that a provision of Senate Bill 1 will help break down barriers to their hiring process.

Included in Senate Bill 1, which was passed last week by the Kentucky General Assembly, is a directive for the Kentucky State Police and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to prioritize school district background checks, and to allow districts to temporarily hire staff upon receipt of a preliminary background check.

At this time officials from Owensboro Public Schools and Daviess County Public Schools say the background check and fingerprinting process that is required before all Kentucky school employees can be hired is creating a bottleneck effect.

There used to be an option for that process to be completed locally, but late last year the Kentucky State Police took over all fingerprinting and background checks for school systems.

The school systems, like most in the state and across the country, are already having difficulties with hiring, and lengthening the process and making it more complicated is making matters worse, officials say.

Amy Shutt, DCPS assistant superintendent for human services, said OPS and DCPS haven't had a consistent service for fingerprinting and background checks. When the local building that provided the service closed, it was several weeks before KSP took over the duties, "and that developed a backlog."

Prospective employees were having to travel to Madisonville and Bowling Green to complete the required tasks, she said, and now they are coming to a hotel in town.

Carlie Brown, OPS director of personnel, said the districts go through KSP's third party company, IdentoGO. The company rents a room at Fairfield Inn and offers the services with limited availability.

"The next available appointment is Sept. 24, then it jumps to Oct. 1," Brown said.

She said slowing down the hiring process is an inconvenience, especially given there are so many jobs in the area that individuals may not need background checks in order to work.

There have been times in which a prospective employee seeks a job elsewhere while their hiring process with the school system is still ongoing.

"We are trying to think about how we can speed up that process by the time they submit an application to the time they start," Brown said. "Adding something like this, that is out of our control, just leaves people in limbo. We have to be very cognizant to be in contact with potential employees so we don't lose them."

Shutt said she and other school officials across the state and within state organizations have voiced their concerns with this background and fingerprinting process. The agencies are trying to work through varying options, and ways they can solve this issue."

"KSP is sticking to the fact that everything has to come through them," Shutt said.

SB1 also includes a regulation that will allow school systems to hire applicants on a probationary status upon receipt of a preliminary background check conducted by the Administrative Office of the Courts. It's a quicker return, and allows the hiring process to continue while applicants are waiting for their official background checks.

Bobbie Hayse, bhayse@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7315