GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1993

H	1 

HOUSE BILL 1675

Short Title:  Certain Felons Can't Teach.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Representatives J. Brown; Berry, Bowman, Dickson, Esposito, Hall, Holmes, Howard, Joye, McLawhorn, J. Preston, Robinson, Sexton, and Thompson.
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Referred to:  Appropriations.
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May 26, 1994

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO ENSURE THAT PERSONS CONVICTED OF CERTAIN FELONIES ARE NOT ALLOWED TO TEACH SCHOOL IN NORTH CAROLINA AND TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS TO LOCAL SCHOOL ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS TO PAY FOR CRIMINAL RECORD CHECKS OF TEACHERS.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  Article 20 of Chapter 115C of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:
"§ 115C-295.1.  Persons convicted of certain felonies shall not teach school in North Carolina.
(a)	It shall be unlawful for any local board of education to employ or keep in service any teacher who is convicted of a felony that bears upon an individual's fitness to have responsibility for the safety and well-being of children.  These felonies include homicide, rape and other sex offenses, assaults, kidnapping and abduction, malicious injury or damage by the use of incendiary device or material, offenses against public morality and decency, prostitution, a crime against children, and a crime against the family, as prescribed respectively in Articles 6, 7A, 8, 10, 13, 26, 27, 39, and 40 of Chapter 14 of the General Statutes, and a violation of the North Carolina Controlled Substances Act, as prescribed in Article 5 of Chapter 90 of the General Statutes.
	(b)	Each local board of education shall ensure that applicants for teacher positions and teachers employed by the local school administrative unit are checked for criminal history and shall not employ or keep in service any teacher who is convicted of a felony that bears upon an individual's fitness to have responsibility for the safety and well-being of children.  A local board of education may employ a teacher conditionally or keep in service a teacher while the board is investigating whether the person has been convicted of such a felony.
(c)	The Department of Justice shall provide to the local board of education the criminal history from the State and National Repositories of criminal histories of any applicant for a teacher position or any teacher employed by the local school administrative units.  The criminal history shall consist of information related to the conviction of a felony that bears upon an individual's fitness to have responsibility for the safety and well-being of children.
The local board of education, through a local law enforcement agency, shall provide to the Department of Justice along with the request the fingerprints of the person to be checked, any additional information required by the Department of Justice, and a form consenting to the check of the criminal record and to the use of fingerprints and other identifying information required by the repositories signed by the person to be checked.  Refusal to consent is grounds for the local board of education to refuse to hire an applicant for a teacher position or to fire a teacher employed by the local board of education.
(d)	If the criminal history received by a local board of education consists of information related to any conviction of a certificated teacher of a felony that bears upon an individual's fitness to have responsibility for the safety and well-being of children, the local board of education shall report the criminal history to the State Board of Education.  The State Board of Education shall use the report of the criminal history to determine whether the person's teacher certification should be revoked.
(e)	All the information received by the local board of education through the checking of the criminal history or by the State Board of Education in accordance with subsection (d) of this section is privileged information and for the exclusive use of the local board of education or the State Board of Education.  The local board of education or the State Board of Education may destroy the information after it is used for the purposes authorized by this section after one calendar year.
(f)	No action for civil or criminal liability shall be brought against a local board of education or the State Board of Education as a result of actions taken to carry out its duties under this section if the local board of education or the State Board of Education was acting in good faith and in accordance with this section and the rules established pursuant to it.
(g)	The Department of Justice shall charge local boards of education a fee in accordance with G.S. 114-19.2(c) for conducting the checks of the criminal records authorized by this section."
Sec. 2.  G.S. 114-19.2(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a)	The Department of Justice may provide a criminal record check to the local board of education of a person who is employed in a public school in that local school district or of a person who has applied for employment in a public school in that local school district, if the employee or applicant consents to the record check.  The Department may also provide a criminal record check to the local board of education from National Repositories of Criminal histories, in accordance with G.S. 115C-295.1. The information shall be kept confidential by the local board of education as provided in Article 21A of Chapter 115C."
Sec. 3.  The State Board of Education, in consultation with the Division of Criminal Information of the Department of Justice, shall adopt rules to implement this act.
Sec. 4.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the State Board of Education the sum of two million five hundred seven thousand four hundred sixty-eight dollars ($2,507,468) for the 1994-95 fiscal year to pay the fees for criminal record checks required by Section 1 of this act.
Sec. 5.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1994.