Butte School District

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

5120P

Federal Background Check Fingerprints and Information Handling Procedure

 

Butte School District has the authority to conduct federal background checks for applicants having unsupervised access to the vulnerable populations.  All individuals 18 years of age or older to be volunteers or recommended for hire by the School District need to be fingerprinted under the National Child Protection Act and Volunteers for Children’s Act (NCPA/VCA).

Teachers licensed by the Office of Public Instruction in the State of Montana are required to submit fingerprints for a criminal background check as a requirement of the initial licensing process. If teachers recommended for employment have been licensed in the State of Montana within the previous two years, no further criminal background check is required.

The School District will obtain a signed waiver from all applicants and provide written communication of Applicant Rights and Consent to Fingerprint Form at 5122F-1. Applicants shall also be provided the Applicant Privacy Statement.  The Applicant Rights and Consent to Fingerprint Form will be kept on file for 5 years or for the length of employment, whichever is longer. 

Basis to Collect and Submit Fingerprints for Purposes of Federal Background Check Fingerprints will be obtained:

 After making an appointment, Livescan fingerprints are captured in house by agency personnel that have completed and passed the certification course provided by CRISS. All applicants must provide a current government issued photo identification at the time of fingerprinting for identification verification. Fingerprints are then submitted to CRISS via the Livescan.

A spreadsheet of those fingerprinted is kept by the School District to identify the individual, position being hired for, date of fingerprint, date print received and date print billed. The School District staff that have received training by CRISS will process the fingerprints and send them to the DOJ.

LASO

The Assistant to the Human Resource Director has been appointed as the Local Agency Security Officer and acts as the primary point of contact between the School District and CRISS.  The Assistant to the Human Resource Director is responsible for ensuring CJIS Policy compliance by all authorized recipients within the School District. LASO is also responsible of any Privacy and Security Agreements with those who do not use CRIS on a regular basis.  Any change in appointment of the LASO or other authorized personnel will be reported to CRISS immediately.

Access of CHRI

All background results are received by the Assistant to the Human Resource Director through the State File Transfer Service. Results are printed and stored in a locked filing cabinet in the human resource office until a determination for employment is made. Only authorized personnel that have undergone Privacy and Security Information Training have access to printed criminal history record information. Authorized recipients of CHRI include the Superintendent, Human Resource Director, Assistant to the Human Resource Director and the District Receptionist.

Determination Procedures

Personnel staff that have been trained by CRISS and granted access to criminal history record information will receive the background results through their Montana State File Transfer account.

Printed background checks are reviewed by the Assistant to the Human Resource Director and a Determination Form is completed. If any adverse results are present on the background check, it is given to the Superintendent, and Human Resource Director for final determination of eligibility to take place within 2 weeks. Determination is noted on a determination form and kept in a locked filing cabinet. The CHRI is then destroyed in accordance with the Destruction Procedure outlined in this document.  Only authorized personnel are present during the determination process when the criminal record is being reviewed.

Dissemination Procedure:

The School District does not disseminate criminal history record information. A copy of our determination form can be provided to outside agencies upon request.

The District may accept the determination of a comparable background check conducted for a university system or a private college or a school district provided the background check was completed no more than two years before recommended employment.  A comparable background check means a name based and fingerprint based state and national criminal background check.

Retention and Storage Procedures

All Criminal History Record Information (CHRI) will be stored in a physically secure location with access available only to authorized personnel. 

Printed background checks are stored until a final determination for employment has been made, two weeks or less.  The Butte School District then utilizes the Determination Form and the CHRI is then shredded.

Destruction Procedure

At the end of the retention and storage period outlined in this document, all CHRI and related information is shredded in house by the Assistant to the HR Director.

Applicant Procedures for Challenging or Correcting their Record

All applicants are given the opportunity to challenge or complete their record before a final determination is made. After completing 5120F-5, applicants wishing to challenge their record are given a copy of the background report.

The applicant is then given 10 days to contact the state or agency in which the record was created to make corrections. After the allotted time, the applicant must then provide the Butte School District with a copy of the corrected background report provided by and notarized by the State Identification Bureau. The fee associated for a copy of the state record provided by the State Identification Bureau will be the responsibility of the applicant.

Policy and Procedures for Misuse of CHRI

The Butte School District does not allow dissemination of CHRI to persons or agencies that are not directly involved in the hiring and determination process. If CHRI is disseminated outside of the authorized receiving department, the Assistant to the Human Resource Director will report this to CRISS immediately and provide CRISS with an incident response form. The incident response form will include the nature of the incident, any internal reprimands that may have resulted from the incident, as well as our agencies plan to ensure that this incident does not get repeated.

Training Procedure

• Local Agency Security Officer (LASO)
  • Signed User Agreement between District and CRISS
• Privacy and Security Training
• All authorized personnel will undergo Privacy and Security Training prior to access to Criminal History Record Information and every two years thereafter.

 

Procedure History:

Adopted on: 01/19/2010
Revised on:09/18/2017, 12/18/2017, 11/15/2021, 1/21/2025, 2/18/2025