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Criminal Background Checks

For some years, The School Code has provided that school districts may not knowingly employ individuals who have been convicted of certain offenses (principally those related to sex or drugs). Procedures have been developed for submission of requests for criminal background investigations for applicants for school positions in which they would have "direct, daily contact" with students. Requests are submitted to the Illinois State Police on forms developed by that agency.

More recently, concerns have arisen about the limitations of current procedures and the need to know about the applicants' criminal records in states other than Illinois. It has been asserted that the submission by applicants of fingerprints (rather than name and birth date) would be preferable. Accordingly, the Illinois Senate passed this session Senate Resolution 129. This calls for the State Board of Education, in consultation with the State Police, to "make available to school districts" information about the differences between a criminal background check based upon name and birth date and one based upon applicant's fingerprints, in terms of: 1) process, 2) costs, and 3) thoroughness of results. The Illinois State Police now process a few school district requests for criminal background information based upon fingerprints. Sponsors of the resolution hope that more school districts may be encouraged to make requests in this format. Data on convictions in other states is disclosed from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) via the Illinois State Police. Currently, a name search costs $10, and a fingerprint search, $38.

Obedience to School Crossing Guards

Provisions related to individuals who fail to obey directions of police and firemen have long been a part of the Illinois Vehicle Code. Formerly, these also included "uniformed adult" school crossing guards. This session, the General Assembly extended the statute to cover all school crossing guards who have the authority to regulate traffic, by deleting the phase "adult uniformed." Also, a new provision was added to specify that anyone convicted of violating the law is guilty of a "petty offense" and subject to a mandatory fine of $150.

Illinois Teachers' Retirement System Changes

In the concluding days of the spring session, the General Assembly passed legislation promptly signed by the Governor, which made major changes in employer and employee TRS obligations and in the benefits available to retirees. Widely publicized and popularly known as the 2.2 legislation, the provisions of this bill (P.A. 90-582, effective July l, 1998) were discussed in Bulletin Boards of this office dated June 23 and July 15, 1998, and are not repeated herein.