Required Employment History Review Procedure and Forms

Act 168 of 2014 amends the Public School Code of 1949, to provide direction regarding employment history reviews for all new employees who will have direct contact with children. The Act also requires the Pennsylvania Department of Education (“Department”) to obtain and monitor arrest and case disposition information for educators.

The information below focuses on the process for employment history review as dictated by Act 168, explain the use of forms related to the employment history review and explain the process for accessing information regarding “pending criminal charge” information as directed by Act 168.

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As of December 22, 2014, all school entities and/or independent contractors of a school entity (collectively referred to herein as “hiring entity”) must conduct an employment history review for any prospective employee prior to hiring, if the employee will be hired for a position where he/she will have direct contact with children.  Direct contact with children is defined as the “possibility of care, supervision, guidance, control or routine interaction with children.”

Summary of Act 168 Requirements

In addition to satisfying pre-existing employment requirements of the Public School Code and the Child Protective Services Law, the hiring entity must require an applicant under consideration for employment in a position where he/she will have direct contact with children to provide contact information for the following:

1.  Current employer (regardless of whether the current employer is a school entity or where the applicant is employed in a position that involves direct contact with children); 2. All former employers that were school entities; and 3. All former employers where the applicant was employed in a position that involved direct contact with children.

The above information must be provided on the Department’s form titled “Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Sexual Misconduct/Abuse Disclosure Release” form: http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/http;/www.portal.state.pa.us;80/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_148494_1464556_0_0_18/Form-DPTT.pdf.

A separate form must be filled out for each current and former employer. The applicant must also consent to the current/former employer’s disclosure of any information regarding abuse and/or sexual misconduct. An applicant for a position involving direct contact with children cannot be hired unless the applicant provides the required information.

In addition to disclosing current/former employers, an applicant must respond affirmatively or negatively to the following questions on the Sexual Misconduct/Abuse Disclosure Release form: whether they have ever been the subject of an abuse or sexual misconduct investigation by any employer, state licensing agency, law enforcement agency or child protective services agency; whether they were disciplined, discharged, non-renewed, asked to resign from employment, resigned from or otherwise separated from employment while allegations of abuse or sexual misconduct were pending or under investigation or due to adjudication or findings of abuse or sexual misconduct; and/or had a license, professional license or certificate suspended, surrendered or revoked while allegations of abuse or sexual misconduct were pending or under investigation or due to an adjudication or findings of abuse or sexual misconduct.

Upon receipt of the completed Sexual Misconduct/Abuse Disclosure Release form(s), the hiring entity, if the applicant is still under consideration for employment, must then submit the form(s)  to the current/former employer(s) to verify the information provided by the applicant by completing section 2 of the form.  The current/former employer(s) have 20 days to respond to the request. Failure by the current/former employer(s) to respond and provide the information requested can result in civil penalties and/or violations of the Educator Misconduct Act.

Any affirmative response by the current/former employer(s) to the questions regarding abuse and/or sexual misconduct could terminate the applicant’s opportunity for employment or the hiring entity could decide to continue to consider the applicant for employment.  If the applicant is still being considered for employment, the hiring entity must submit the “Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Sexual Misconduct/Abuse Disclosure Information Request” form to the affirmatively responding current/former employer(s). In response to receipt of a Sexual Misconduct/Abuse Disclosure Information Request, the current/former employer(s) must disclose all information and documentation related to the allegations within 60 days.  Sexual Misconduct/Abuse Disclosure Information Request form: http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/http;/www.portal.state.pa.us;80/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_148494_1464555_0_0_18/Form%20-%20DPTT%20-%20employer%20follow%20up.pdf.

Provisional employment of applicants pending responses by current/former employers can be made for up to 90 days of employment, if the applicant meets certain requirements.

Verifying Employment Eligibility or Certification and Pending Criminal Charges

In addition to verifying the applicant’s history regarding abuse and/or sexual misconduct, Act 168 also requires that when the applicant is an educator who holds public or private school certification and/or has been assigned a Professional Personnel Identification number (“PPID”), the hiring entity must ensure that the applicant has a valid and active certification appropriate for the position, determine whether the applicant has been the subject of public professional discipline, and ascertain whether the educator has pending criminal charges.

Information concerning certification status and public professional discipline can be found in the Teacher Information Management System (“TIMS”). In addition, information concerning pending criminal charges will also now be available through TIMS.  Hiring entities that are provisioned users of TIMS can determine whether an educator has pending criminal charges by searching the educator by name or PPID and clicking on “View Complete Profile. Hiring entities that are not provisioned can access the same information by searching the educator by PPID from the public access site: http://www.teachercertification.pa.gov/Screens/wfSearchEducators.aspx.

For example, for an educator with pending criminal charges, you would see the following notation in the Educator Complete Profile: Pending Criminal Charges: Yes – The Department has information of pending criminal charges. Please contact the Pennsylvania Department of Education Office of Chief Counsel at 717-787-5500.

For an educator without pending criminal charges, you would see the following: Pending Criminal Charges: No – The Department has no information of pending criminal charges.  The Department provides this information pursuant to Act 168 which does not relieve a public or private school entity from its duty to obtain any and all required criminal clearances pursuant to 24 P.S. §1-111.

A “Pending Criminal Charges” indicator means that the educator has been criminally charged with a misdemeanor or felony crime, which includes pending pre-trial diversionary program completion (i.e. an ARD program).

The information reflected in TIMS regarding pending criminal charges has been received by the Department from the Pennsylvania Justice Network (“JNET”), which provides the Department with limited public information about criminal charges.  If it is noted that the applicant has pending criminal charges in TIMS, the hiring entity may contact the Department’s Office of Chief Counsel at 717-787-5500 for information regarding charge information, the date of the charges and the county where the charges were incurred.  Hiring entities may also verify the charges and obtain this information by accessing the Pennsylvania Judiciary Web Portal, which is a free database of publicly available criminal information.  Access to the portal can be made at https://ujsportal.pacourts.us.

Please note that the information available on TIMS is only provided for educators holding a Pennsylvania public or private teaching certification and/or a PPID number. Information for any other applicants is not available on TIMS.