beignets;131292 wrote: our district pays for background checks. does them every yr on every volunteer (and staff). no fingerprints though.

parent volunteers have to pay for their own TB check, once every 5 yrs.

(PRIVACY? anyone can go online and get a background check done on anyone.)

of COURSE you can assume a parent is ALWAYS observed by a staff member,,,but are they? would you want a convicted sex offender working at your school as a parent volunteer? it was in the papers not long ago. 2 cases in fact.

we are all glad that our volunteers are checked. its not foolproof, but at least, they are doingtheir best and their duty to assure as SAFE enfvironment for the kids as possible. YEAH! our tax dollars at work (for the backgrd checks)

IN Florida you have to Pay for it and it lasts for 3 years. You have to get fingerprinted and have a background check for all public schools.

chic*mom;107567 wrote: The fact that you are not "thrilled" scares me!!!
In todays world there are wierd crazy people that want to hurt kids... And where better to find the kids but a school.
Yes our district dose fingerprinting of volunteers! If they didn't I would be worried. Volunteers are put in positions of authority of our children, they have many opportunties to molest, kidnap, or hurt a child... I want to know that my district is doing something to "weed" out the people that have been flagged as should not work w/kids.
Just the other day in our local newspaper there was a story of a man who had molested a child, upon reading the story I realized he was a father of a child at my daughter/sons school. What if he had been working in their class, attending fieldtrips... Our ditrict has one person who works at the district office who recieves all the fingerprinting info. back from the police, so if a parent dose not "pass" the whole world will not know, they just will not be on the approved list... They only turn people away who have been convicted of a major crime, or a crime against a child.
Maybe I am a overprotective mom, but this subject is really important to me. I think that it is the school's responsibility to protect my child while they are at school, and if fingerprinting parents to see if they have ever been convicted of hurting a child is how they do it that great with me... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Why the hostility because someone may not agree with you??- in this country all are afforded certain rights, priviledges, and responsibility.

I'm all for background checks but there are also legal issues with who, what, why, where, when and at who's cost.

Parents have a right to be at a PUBLIC school, the PUBLIC school has a right to protect the children attending but not at unreasonable cost or hardship to those parents, stakeholders and service organizations that have a right to be there or enhance the school.

The Constitution, State and local laws put limits on costs to taxpayers, org's, what info can and cant be used collected, and what costs for school and activities can be or npt be passed.

To simply say 'sure my org will pay $4600 a yr for any and all background checks something the school, district, state or feds maybe responsilbe for is financially, democraticaly and moral wrong.

Our childrens welfare and education are important but Democracy, Freedom and Fiscal responsibility are just as important.

beignets;131292 wrote: would you want a convicted sex offender working at your school as a parent volunteer?

Schools should be receiving lists of convicted sex offenders in the area. They are supposed to be cross-checking visitors and bus stops against that list already.

reluctantprez;131311 wrote: Can they dictate how 501c3 Orgs spend their money? .

Technically, no. But they can certainly control who is or is not allowed in the school building.

Tim

I'm pretty sure I'm in the same district and what bothers me is their idea to ask the PTO to pay for this. We have 25 schools and the costs involved are huge. They want to charge each volunteer $23 a year. A fingerprinting clearance card from the DPS is $46 for 6 years. State law says you can't ask a volunteer to pay for fingerprinting, so someone else would have to pay for it. If they are asking me to add this to my budget every year, are they giving me the best deal? If we have 200 volunteers they would ask us to cover $4600. That's a lot of Box Tops. Can they dictate how 501c3 Orgs spend their money? Some of our schools have much more active parent groups and others could go under because of this. I'm very upset about this really question the legality of it.

we dont fill out any papers...we sign one form acknowledging the district may run a check (if we want to volunteer in ANY capacity on school grounds). thats it, no hassle, no papers, just a signature.the district does the rest.