STATE BOARD MAY TOUGHEN TEACHER SCRUTINY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 29, 1993                   TAG: 9301290298
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short
STATE BOARD MAY TOUGHEN TEACHER SCRUTINY
If you're a felon in need of a job, take heart: Virginia schools likely will not check your criminal history.
In most of the state's school districts, applicants are not subjected to criminal-records scrutiny, even if they are applying to be teachers, substitutes or classroom aides.
The state Board of Education is considering changing that. Officials said Thursday they're studying whether to require localities to check applicants' names on state police lists of violent criminals, and run their fingerprints through Federal Bureau of Investigation computer rosters.
"It's not a panacea," said Alan L. Barbee, investigative specialist for Fairfax County schools, one of only eight school districts statewide that fingerprint applicants. In Western Virginia, only the Radford school system conducts such rigorous checks.
- Landmark News Service

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB