Fingerprinting and Criminal Conviction Monitoring of Public School Contracted Staff - 313-0640-21
Description of Agency
State law mandates that the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), by authority of the State Board of Education, require each local school board, each public school academy board, each intermediate school district board, and the officers of each of those boards to observe the laws related to schools.
Section 380.1230a of the Michigan Compiled Laws:
- Requires the board of a school district or intermediate school district or the governing body of a public school academy or nonpublic school to require individuals assigned to regularly and continuously work under contract in its schools to submit fingerprints to the Michigan Department of State Police for the performance of a criminal records check through the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the purposes of employment screening and monitoring of criminal conviction activity while working under contract in a school and precludes individuals with certain criminal convictions from working regularly and continuously under contract in schools.
- Defines regularly and continuously working under contract to mean working at a school on a more than intermittent or sporadic basis as an owner or employee of an entity that has a contract with a school district, intermediate school district, or public school academy, or nonpublic school to provide food, custodial, transportation, counseling, or administrative services, or to provide instructional services to pupils or related and auxiliary services to special education pupils.
There are an undeterminable number of contracted staff working in Michigan’s public schools* and not all public schools utilize contracted staff. As a part of our preliminary procedures, we surveyed all 886 public schools Statewide to help determine the extent of contracted staff working in Michigan’s public schools as of March 1, 2021. Ninety-one percent (91%) of the 353 public schools that responded to our survey reported having contracted staff, with an average of over 80 and ranging from 1 to over 1,400.
* Includes public school districts, intermediate school districts, and public school academies.
Audit Objective
To assess the effectiveness of MDE’s efforts to ensure that public school contracted staff are fingerprinted and monitored for criminal convictions.
Timing
Estimated Release Date: June 2023
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