Coaching hires may get scrutiny

04/04/2008

The Legislature has passed bills requiring schools to perform background checks.


By MARY LYNN SMITH,
Star Tribune
April 2, 2008


All school coaches -- from the chess club to the football team -- would face the same background checks as classroom teachers under a proposed law that has won overwhelming support in both houses of the Minnesota Legislature.

The language in the House and Senate bills differs slightly but the intent is the same: to require criminal background checks for anyone who will coach or lead school activities, said Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope.

The remaining differences will soon be worked out in a conference committee, she said.

All licensed teachers already undergo criminal background checks, but only some school districts also require the checks before a coach who isn't also a teacher is hired, said Rep. Karla Bigham, DFL-Cottage Grove.

"What we need is a consistent policy throughout the state so we're not creating a loophole or patchwork policy," said Bigham, who sponsored the House version that passed 118-11 on Tuesday.

The Senate version passed 66-0 on March 19.

Over the past year, several incidents in which coaches and other activity leaders were charged with having inappropriate sexual contact with students prompted calls for more scrutiny of employees and volunteers in such positions.

Bigham said she doesn't intend for the new rules to apply to classroom volunteers, such as the parent or the senior citizen who comes into the school to read or tutor students. "I don't want to discourage parents from being active participants in schools," she said.

But Rest said her bill would require volunteers as well as paid coaches to undergo background checks that would alert school officials to gross misdemeanors and felonies.

"As a parent I would want anyone who is going to have contact with my child on a regular, consistent basis to have a background check," Rest said. That means, Rest said, anyone who comes in contact with students at least once a week. The new law wouldn't apply to parents who chaperone a field trip, she said.

"I don't see there's going to be a huge disagreement over this [legislation]," Rest said.

During the House debate, however, objections came from Rep. Mark Buesgens, R-Jordan, who said the requirement would be another burden for already-strapped school districts and could make it harder to recruit coaches.

The growth of school sports and clubs has increased the need for coaches and activity leaders, prompting districts to hire and seek volunteers from outside the ranks of teachers. And starting in 1991, head coaches no longer had to be licensed teachers.

But Rest and Bigham point out that screening done by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension costs only $15 per applicant. In some districts, the applicants pick up the tab. "It's not a burden," she said. And in some cases, she said, booster clubs could pay the fee for applicants.

"It's not a panacea and it's not going to keep a smart predator from gaining access and preying on our children," Rest said. "What we do know, and what a parent has a right to expect, is that the school district has taken at least one step ... a modest assurance that the district has done one sweep to make sure people don't have gross misdemeanors or felonies."

Charlie Kyte, executive director of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators, said he supports the legislation. "We think it needs to be done, although we feel badly that it has to be done. But we're getting just enough cases around the state of people who don't have good backgrounds and act poorly that we feel we need to step up the level of checks," he said.

School officials know that people who want to exploit children "work at trying to get these jobs," Kyte said. "It behooves all of us to get those few bad apples out of the equation."

Kyte said the new law wouldn't place an unfair burden on districts. "It does cost something but we're not talking about large numbers of people. It's better to be on the safe side," Kyte said. "What really is an unfair burden for a school is to have one single person abuse a kid. Not only do you have the damage to the kid and his family but you also have the financial damage to the school, long-term and big time."