SUMMARY:  This bill would amend Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the O.C.G.A. to provide clearance certificates issued by the PSC related to fingerprint and criminal background checks and to provide for criminal background checks for non-educators

REQUIREMENTS:

• This bill would repeal the current section of the law on criminal background checks and replace it with the following:
  • A definition of “clearance certificate” as one issued by the PSC to verify that an educator has completed the fingerprint and criminal records check and certifies that the individual does not have a certificate that is currently revoked or suspended in Georgia or any other state.  It also allows that the clearance certificate would be good for 5 years and would not require additional fingerprinting for that purpose during that time period.
  • It would apply to all education personnel required to hold a professional educator certificate, license or permit issued by the PSC and persons who apply for the same.
  • It would apply to local school systems, state chartered special schools and commission charter schools.
  • Beginning with January 1, 2011, all applications for certificates, etc., would have to have a valid clearance certificate.  All those holding certificates that expire after that date would have to have a clearance certificate upon renewal of their certificates, etc.
  • Local systems would have to fingerprint and have a criminal records check on all non-educator personnel employed after January 1, 2011 and within 20 days of employment.  Local systems must have policies relating to repeat of the criminal records check for those employees.
  • Local systems may pay for the checks, or they can require the employees to pay the fee associated with the process.
  • An additional fee of $20 would be payable to the PSC for the clearance certificate.