Idaho Bills

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.

Amends existing law to provide that a teacher or administrator who retires at age 60+ years and who again becomes employed may continue receiving benefits and not accrue additional services, under certain conditions.

Currently, a retired teacher 62 years of age or older and who is not receiving a reduced benefit pursuant to Section 59-1346, Idaho Code, for early retirement, may return to work at any time, regardless of the length of the break in service, and not have their Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho (PERSI) benefit reduced. As part of the work being done by the State Board of Education to identify strategies for addressing teacher shortage areas and streamline Idaho's teacher certification requirements, the Board identified age restriction as one barrier to hiring retired teachers to fill some positions, particularly in rural school districts where they may only have the capacity for teachers to work on a part time basis. In an example of a part-time position, the individual may not be able to afford to return to work on a part-time basis if the teacher were to have a reduction in their retirement benefit. The proposed amendment to Section 59-1356, Idaho Code would reduce the age from 62 to 60 and thereby allow these individuals to return to work with a school district without a reduction in their retirement benefits. While this change will impact only a small number of individuals, it could make a large difference to a school district who may otherwise find it necessary to hire a less qualified individual.