The Daily Caveat comments following the article...

Via WBAY TV Online:

School Districts Consider P.I. for Background Checks

April 25, 2005
By Sarah Thomsen

Both the Green Bay and Oconto Falls school districts are considering using a private investigative firm to conduct their background checks. The school districts are looking at their options after the Green Bay public school district's background check failed to show out-of-state felony convictions against student liaison Frank Smith, who resigned last month after his arrest on charges of drug possession and domestic abuse.

A year-and-a-half ago, Oconto Falls started running checks through a Department of Justice web site, the same one that Green Bay school district officials say failed them. When Oconto Falls superintendent Dave Polashek realized that, he started considering a private investigator. Though it only takes a minute for Oconto Falls administrators to pull up a criminal history on the DOJ web site, the district says it's not good enough any more.

"Has to do with people coming in from out of state. That's more of a challenge trying to get those databases that may exist in other places, so that's something we may refer to a private investigator," Polashek said. The district says its two Internet searches have limited databases and a private investigator could find a lot more than it could. "It's the issue of balance of time, cost, and really how much more do they provide compared to what you get right now," Polashek said.

Craig Warrick is a retired assistant principal-turned-private investigator. He says schools need outside help. When new teachers apply for a license, the Department of Public Instruction runs a check on them but by law only crimes related to children are reported to the district; the district has to find out the rest themselves. "The law, statute, says 'substantially related to welfare of children,' therefore DPI is doing their job in not reporting some crimes that they're not supposed to but that also puts the onus back on the school district," Warrick said.

If the schools go ahead with this option, both Green Bay and Oconto Falls administrators tell us they would probably go through a private investigation firm, get a subscription to the national databases, then pay about $20 for each person they put through checks on those databases.

The original article can be found here here.

I would not be surprized to find other school districts following the examples of Green Bay and Oconto Falls. And while resources are scant in our school systems, administrators would do well to remember that background investigations are much like any other consumer arena - you more often than not get what you pay for. As we saw in the TIAA-CREF / Kroll debacle from last week sometimes the basic package just doesn't cut it.

Incidents like the one in Green Bay show the importance of conducting proper background checks. When conducting a background search, investigative firms usually be able to access home address information for the last ten (possibly fifteen) years. From this list of past addesses an investigative firm will plot the path of its litigations searches - what local, state and federal jurisdictions it will include. However, litigation databases are not perfect and seldom are their holdings complete.

For any school system considering expanding their employee background investigations beyond the standard DOJ database search, I would suggest taking a hands-on approach in selecting the right firm for their needs and taking the time to understand the coverage (or lack of coverage) that a background check includes. Be sure to ask a potential vendor about the specific coverage for your state but also remember that people in this day and age move around unpredictably and a search in any state is up for grabs.

It is vitally important that any investigative report received describes not just the "hits" but also what it doesn't include. Choosing the right firm and the right budget point are difficult decisions but the right firm is the one that is willing to discuss their limitations with you candidly and offer you the best search possible, not just the cheapest. Anything less is a waste of scant resources offering only a false sense of security.

-- MDT

Labels: background checks, database