Background Checks for Texas School Employees Too Public

How much should the public be able to know about school employees' background checks?

That question is currently under review in the Texas Legislature. There are four bills in the Legislature that would make it harder for the public to obtain information, according to an article by The Dallas Morning News.

If passed, the bills would mean schools aren't allowed to show the public information learned through criminal background checks, including campus-by-campus summaries of convictions. Schools also would be required to destroy any information learned from criminal checks within a year.

The bills would go against previous opinion and legislature, including an Austin district court's decision, that states some information on school district employees should be public.

"The public should be entitled to full disclosure," Rep. Jim Jackson, R-Carrollton, said. "We talk a lot about transparency these days."

The Association of Texas Professional Educators, which is the state's largest teachers' union, wrote much of the language in the bills. The union has sued to overturn previous opinion and legislation.

Supporters say school employees face unfair scrutiny and embarrassment if criminal information is public, and that lawmakers never wanted the information public when they passed the 2007 law requiring background checks.