Amends existing law to provide that a criminal history check on a teacher applicant may be shared with the employing school district.

This legislation amends Idaho Code § 33-130 allowing the State Department of Education (SDE) to share the results of an educator's background check with the employing school district or public charter school. This practice will allow one (1) set of fingerprints and one (1) background check to count for both initial certification and employment; the SDE and the employer (the school district or public charter school) to get a copy of the results. Currently, the SDE policy states that school districts and public charter school are to submit two (2) sets of fingerprints for the two (2) background checks for new hires who are also in the process of obtaining their initial certification. In the past, school districts and public charter schools only were required to submit one (1) set of prints for both purposes; the SDE retains the background check resultsandtheschooldistrictsandpubliccharterschoolsdonotreceiveacopyofthebackgroundcheck. The legislation would allow school districts to receive a copy of the background check results in order to make employment decisions. As the law currently stands, potential employees or the school districts or public charter schools have to pay for two (2) background checks. That cost is $32.00 per background check.