Board of Education looks at stricter background checks
By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on October 22, 2017 1:45 AM
Stricter requirements for school volunteers may be on the way come November, after the Wayne County Board of Education discussed a revision to its volunteer policy at a work session Tuesday.
The new policy would require that all school volunteers, regardless of what they would apply for, submit to a criminal background check before being allowed to volunteer. This would also apply to any parent or guardian accompanying students to an off-site school program or field trip.
Yvette Mason, WCPS assistant superintendent for human resources, said the policy first came about because of an inquiry from principals.
"We had a question from some of our principals about how we conduct background checks, and from that we decided to start looking more at our policy," she said. "We have a system that we use for background checks for employees that is free of charge, so we can do it that way."
At the work session, board member Jennifer Strickland expressed concern that the new guidelines could make it difficult for interested parents to get involved, simply due to the amount of red tape the rules would create. She said that background checks would make perfect sense in situations where adults would be alone with students, but could be unnecessary when those involved would be out in the open.
Mason said that the intent of the new guidelines is to make sure the children are safe, not to make it any more difficult for parents to get involved. Anyone who wants to volunteer or chaperone a trip will only need to complete a background check once, not again and again for each successive event.
Parents who sign up to help in their children's schools early in the year will be notified of the background check requirement in their information packets, Mason said.
The board will vote on the new guidelines at its November 6 meeting.