La. Admin. Code tit. 28 § CXV-501

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 9, September 20, 2024
Section CXV-501 - Criminal Background Checks
A. Each LEA shall establish by regulation, requirements and procedures consistent with R.S. 17:15 and R.S. 15:587.1, through which it may request information from the Louisiana Bureau of Criminal Identification and Information necessary to ascertain whether an employee, or applicant for employment as a teacher, substitute teacher, bus driver, substitute bus driver, or janitor, or as a temporary, part-time, or permanent employee of any kind, including any person employed to provide cafeteria, transportation, or janitorial or maintenance services by any person or entity that contracts with a school or school system to pervade such services, has been arrested for, convicted of, or pled nolo contendere to, any criminal offense.
1. The regulation shall include the requirement and the procedure for the submission of a person's fingerprints on a form acceptable to the bureau.
2. The request for information necessary to determine whether a person has been arrested for, convicted of, or pled nolo contendere to, any criminal offense must be on a form prepared by the bureau and must be signed by a responsible officer or official of the LEA making the request.
3. It must include a statement signed by the person about whom the request is made which gives permission for such information to be released and must include the person's fingerprints in a form acceptable to the bureau.
4. Repealed.
B. No person who has been convicted of or has pled nolo contendere to a crime listed in R.S. 15:587.1(C) shall be hired by a public elementary or secondary school as a teacher, substitute teacher, bus driver, substitute bus driver, janitor, or as a temporary, part-time, or permanent employee of any kind, including any person employed to provide cafeteria, transportation, or janitorial or maintenance services by any person or entity that contracts with a school or school system to provide such services unless approved in writing by a district judge of the parish and the district attorney or, if employed on an emergency basis, unless approved in writing by the superintendent of the school system.
1. This statement of approval shall be kept on file at all times by the school and shall be produced upon request to any law enforcement officer.
2. Not later than 30 days after its being placed on file by the school, the school principal shall submit a copy of the statement of approval to the state superintendent of education.
C. The LEA shall dismiss any teacher or any other school employee having supervisory or disciplinary authority over school children, if such teacher or school employee is convicted of, or pleads nolo contendere to, any crime listed in R.S. 15:587.1(C), except R.S. 14:74.
D. An LEA may reemploy a teacher or other school employee who has been convicted of, or pled nolo contendere to, a crime listed in R.S. 15:587.1(C), only upon written approval of the district judge of the parish and the district attorney or upon written documentation from the court in which the conviction occurred stating that the conviction has been reversed, set aside, or vacated.
1. Any such statement of approval of the judge and the district attorney and any such written documentation from the court shall be kept on file at all times by the school and shall be produced upon request to any law enforcement officer.
2. Not later than 30 days after its being placed on file by the school, the school principal shall submit a copy of any such statement of approval or written documentation from the court to the state superintendent of education.
E. A teacher or other school employee, upon final conviction or plea of guilty or nolo contendere to any criminal offense, excluding traffic offenses, shall report the fact of the conviction or plea to his employer within 48 hours of the conviction or plea.

La. Admin. Code tit. 28, § CXV-501

Promulgated by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, LR 31:1265 (June 2005), amended LR 33:431 (March 2007), LR 34:607 (April 2008), repromulgated LR 35:443 (March 2009), amended LR 35:1473 (August 2009), LR 39:2200 (August 2013), Amended LR 442132 (12/1/2018).
AUTHORITY NOTE: Promulgated in accordance with R.S. 17:6, 17:15, and 17:587.1.