Deal surfaces on fingerprinting Release of some data considered

AUGUSTA – A possible compromise in the impasse over the school-employee fingerprinting program surfaced on Thursday. The Legislature’s Education Committee fashioned a bill to allow the release of certain information collected by the fingerprinting program.

The Criminal Justice Committee, frustrated over the lack of information help members judge the effectiveness of the program, moved last week to withhold funding for it. Without additional funding, the program will halt on July 1, according to the state police. Only about half of the 50,000 school employees have been processed so far.

The fingerprinting law was passed to protect schoolchildren from sexual predators and applies to all school employees, from teaching staff to bus drivers and janitors. In addition to submitting themselves to fingerprinting, employees must agree to a criminal records check through the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The Department of Education reviews the information and can revoke a teacher’s certification if the checks show that teachers have been convicted of crimes against children, certain felonies within the past five years, or misdemeanors that could negatively affect their job performance. Other school employees can be dismissed from their positions if they are found to have committed similar offenses.

When members of the Criminal Justice Committee asked earlier this month for data generated by the fingerprint and background check, the Education Department refused on the grounds that the information was confidential according to the law. That opinion was backed up emphatically by the attorney general.

Frustrated at the lack of information, the Criminal Justice Committee voted to withhold the $900,000 requested in the budget to continue the program. The committee’s Senate chairman, Michael McAlevey R-Waterboro, wanted to know the number of people processed, the number of people remaining to be fingerprinted, and the number of teaching certificates denied by the Education Department because of the background checks. He also asked for a breakdown of the types of crimes identified by the checks.

A showdown was scheduled for Thursday to determine if the committee would reconsider its action to withhold funding. But the compromise bill developed by the Education Committee arrived before the debate started and the committee agreed to postpone action until next week.

The compromise bill would change the law to allow for the release of information “necessary for the Legislature to evaluate the effectiveness of the criminal history record program for educational personnel.”

The draft language would allow the state police to release the number of records checks completed and the number remaining. The Education Department would be allowed to release the number of certification applications and the number rejected.

McAlevey said he had concerns that the language did not allow the release of past crimes discovered by the fingerprint and records check process. But he said a meeting sometime next week with the Department of Education, Education Committee, teachers and state police could develop acceptable language on a bill to amend the law and allow funding to continue.

Sen. William B. O’Gara, D-Westbrook, an outspoken critic of McAlevey and his effort to block the program’s funding, said he, too, was comfortable with the draft bill. “I may think it goes too far and you may think it doesn’t go far enough. But I am encouraged that this committee may reconsider their action,” he said to McAlevey.