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Education committee advances measure to require DCS substantiation checks for school hires
Summary
Representative Alexander's bill would require public, charter and private schools — and some youth programs — to run new hires and volunteers through the Department of Children's Services' substantiation database to prevent employees with prior abuse findings from moving between schools without detection.
Representative Alexander presented HB 2475 after describing a Chattanooga case in which an employee terminated for alleged sexual abuse later worked at another school that had not checked the state's substantiation database. "We just want to make sure everybody's on the same page and that we're checking databases," Alexander said, urging uniform checks for public and private school hires and certain community programs.
Legal counsel (Katie Robertson, Office of Legal Services) told the committee that child-care agencies and similar organizations may request DCS checks for volunteers and employees and that private schools already face certain safety and criminal-check requirements; the bill is structured as a safety requirement applicable to schools and certain youth programs.
Members supported the child-protection focus and the bill moved to Government Operations (17 yes, 0 no). Remaining questions include administrative access for nonstate licensed programs and operational procedures for DCS checks and data privacy.
