Parents shouldn’t need to worry that their children will encounter convicted sexual offenders at school.

Unfortunately, a recent incident at a school in my district has highlighted a flaw in Pennsylvania’s school employee and contractor background check requirements. An employee of an independent custodial and maintenance contractor was reportedly assigned to work twice on the school’s campus, at least once when students were present, even though the employee was a Tier 3 registered sex offender and the contractor had not provided a background check to the school.

Under current law, independent contractors are required to obtain and submit background checks to schools only for their employees expected to have “direct contact with children,” defined as “the possibility of care, supervision, guidance or control of children or routine interaction with children.”

Thus a contractor that unilaterally determines their employees will not have “direct contact with children” (perhaps working in the evening or mowing the lawn) can assign them to a school campus, without the school’s knowledge, even when, the employee is a registered sex offender. We also know that students can be on campus even outside of typical school hours, like arriving back in the evening from a field trip or participating in a summer program, and potentially come into contact or interact with these employees.

The decisions of whether to obtain background checks for all employees working at a school and to assign a registered sex offender to perform work at a school should not be left to a contractor’s discretion.

My legislation would amend the Public School Code, Sections 111 and 111.1, so that criminal history record checks are required for prospective employees with direct contact with children or who will perform work on the premises of a school entity. Furthermore, independent contractors would be required to inform school entities of any abuse or sexual misconduct investigations prior to assigning an employee to perform work at a school, allowing the school to object to such assignment.

Please join me in safeguarding our children by correcting this flaw in the background check requirement for school employees.