By DANNY ADLER

Questions remain about criminal history disclosure law

All Pennsylvania public school and private school employees have until Dec. 27 to report if they've had run-ins with the law regarding certain serious crimes in their past, according to a law that took effect in late September.

The state law tweaks criminal history disclosure rules for school employees — teachers, administrators, support staff and contractors — and inflicts a lifetime ban on school employment for people who have committed any of 27 specific crimes.

Those specified "reportable offenses" range from criminal homicide to incest to luring a child. The law also requires workers to report future arrests and convictions of those offenses within 72 hours.

However, there is confusion over whether the new regulations require employees to report arrests in addition to convictions, and a teachers union official said the issue needs to be resolved before employees hand in the forms. 

Previously, state law required a five-year school employment ban for people who committed a serious crime. The new law expands the list of reportable offenses by five to 27, according to a state teachers association, and lengthens the ban to lifetime for people who committed any of those crimes, local officials said. Felonies not on the list lead to a 10-year ban, while first-degree misdemeanors come with a five-year ban. Additionally, the law says that anyone with two convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs can't work in a school for three years.

"According to the law, the General Assembly has made it clear that individuals convicted of (the 27 reportable offenses) shall not be employed in a public or private school," said Jessica Hickernell, a spokeswoman with the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Mark Klein, Council Rock's superintendent of schools, said the new reporting requirements "are designed to create further protections for the children we serve — and, therefore, a good thing for all schools.

"The challenges are pragmatic," he said. "We are required to present these forms not just to our employees, but to the employees of all independent contractors for the school district. The logistics of this new requirement will require a great deal of time and effort from our staff."

While the forms must be filed with school administrations no later than Dec. 27, questions still remain.

The Pennsylvania State Education Association has reached out to the state Department of Education regarding "a minor problem" in the form's wording that the PSEA says is inconsistent with the law itself. Therefore, the PSEA is asking district solicitors to advise that employees shouldn't be required to submit the form until the supposed inconsistency is worked out. He said the law expressly requires that employees report "convictions," not arrests. The form, though, tells workers to check if they've been "arrested or convicted" or "never been arrested or convicted."

PSEA spokesman Wythe Keever said his union didn't take a position on the legislation.

"Generally speaking, PSEA supports efforts to ensure student and school safety, and we are now focused on helping our members comply with the law," he said. "We anticipate those concerns can be addressed in a timely manner well before the Dec. 27, 2011, deadline."

Local districts and school officials are also trying to figure out what the apparent discrepancy means.

"There is a big difference between an arrest and a conviction," said Rebecca Roberts-Malamis, director of human resources with Bucks County Intermediate Unit No. 22. "... We are waiting for guidance from (the department of education) about this."

"I absolutely support the law's intent," she said. "It is our responsibility to employ individuals who exhibit a high degree of moral character to work with and around our children. We expect our employees to be good role models."

Robert J. Cardillo,  director of human resources at the Bensalem Township School District, said the law "is good in some ways in that there is no current mandate for public school employees to get updated background clearance checks once hired" and that "the vast majority of school districts do not have policies in place for updated clearances."

He added: "With respect to employees reporting an arrest within 72 hours for violation of the stated offenses, I don't see that happening. The school district will have to rely on newspaper reports and word-of-mouth stories about employee arrests."

And that's how many district officials hear about things, some say, especially with news websites and social media such as Facebook. As one school official put it, "Nothing happens out there in the community that we don't hear about."

While it isn't common, people with criminal records sometimes can be hired by schools, depending on the crime, the job they're looking for and when the crime occurred, officials said.

Attorney Richard Hark of the criminal defense law firm Hark and Hark said some people successfully rehabilitate themselves after committing crimes and asked, "What is the purpose of rehabilitation if we tell these people 'We don't want you to be in any part of our society?'

"The problem with the law is that it is further penalizing individuals who have reformed themselves and got back on track and are productive hardworking members of society," he said.

The law was changed after a Dauphin County grand jury report recommended strengthening the state's criminal background checks for school employees, including lifetime bans for convictions on certain offenses, after a Steelton-Highspire High School hall monitor with a 1996 federal cocaine-distribution conviction was fired for having sexual contact with students.

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