Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 26, 1995 TAG: 9508280029
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"God forbid that it would happen," said Leggette, a School Board member.
But there might be no way to guarantee that it won't happen in the next few weeks, because the school system must wait another month or more to receive reports on the criminal histories of new employees.
Because the state police have a huge backlog of requests for criminal history checks, Roanoke County and other school systems that opt for the checks are caught in a dilemma.
Some need to hire more teachers or other employees because of resignations, enrollment increases or other reasons before school opens. But they can't get the results of background checks until late September or October.
"We are having a problem. I might have to add five teachers, for instance, at the last minute," said Berkley Lucas, personnel director for Roanoke County schools.
"This is happening to all school systems. They are having to wait on the computer background checks."
The Roanoke County School Board has told Lucas and school officials to use their best judgment in hiring new employees until the backlog is cleared up. A provision also will be included in new employment contracts making the hiring contingent on the person not having a criminal record.
Rod Dillman, Botetourt County's assistant superintendent, said Botetourt is caught in a similar predicament. Some people are being hired with the agreement that they will be terminated if they have an unacceptable criminal history, he said.
The backlog has developed because a new state police regulation prohibits the use of the Virginia Criminal Information Network for noncriminal justice purposes.
The regulation, which took effect July 1, is designed to prevent the computer network from becoming overloaded.
Local police no longer can use the network to make employment checks for school systems or other agencies. Now, all such requests must be handled by state police.
Capt. Lewis Vass, records management officer for the state police, said Friday that the Virginia Criminal Information Network - which was established to serve law enforcement officers in the performance of their duties - never was designed or intended to be used to make background checks for employment purposes.
But local police departments had been doing that in recent years, and the computer system was threatened with becoming overloaded. During the past three years, the number of network transactions increased by more than 4 million a year.
"If this practice is permitted to continue, it is conceivable that a police officer needing vital information in the future may have to wait until a noncriminal justice entity's request is processed on the system," said State Police Superintendent Wayne Huggins in a memo earlier this year.
Vass said state police receive requests for 1,500 to 2,000 criminal background checks daily from school systems, government agencies and businesses.
The backlog is a temporary problem that should be cleared up by the middle of September or early October because of improvements that are being made to state police computer systems, he said.
Vass said a new automated system is also being developed that will enable school systems and others to obtain criminal histories within two days. It could be operating by October, he said.
He said state police cannot grant waivers to the new regulation because it would open the door to hundreds of such requests.
But Joe Obenshain, an assistant Roanoke County attorney and School board attorney, said he doubts state police will get the automated system operating as quickly as they hope.
In the meantime, he said, the policy is creating problems for dozens of school systems, day-care centers, government agencies and others that need to make checks on criminal histories.
by CNB