II 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1596 

To require State educational agencies that receive funding under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to have in effect policies 

and procedures on background checks for school employees. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

OCTOBER 29, 2013 

Mr. TOOMEY introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To require State educational agencies that receive funding 

under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 

1965 to have in effect policies and procedures on background checks for school employees. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Students 

5 from Sexual and Violent Predators Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. BACKGROUND CHECKS. 

7 (a) BACKGROUND CHECKS.—Not later than 2 years 

8 after the date of enactment of this Act, each State eduVerDate Mar 15 2010 23:30 Oct 29, 2013 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1596.IS S1596

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1 cational agency that receives funds under the Elementary 

2 and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 

3 et seq.) shall have in effect policies and procedures that— 

4 (1) require that a criminal background check be 

5 conducted for each school employee that includes— 

6 (A) a search of the State criminal registry 

7 or repository of the State in which the school 

8 employee resides; 

9 (B) a search of State-based child abuse 

10 and neglect registries and databases of the 

11 State in which the school employee resides; 

12 (C) a Federal Bureau of Investigation fin13 gerprint check using the Integrated Automated 

14 Fingerprint Identification System; and 

15 (D) a search of the National Sex Offender 

16 Registry established under section 19 of the 

17 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 

18 2006 (42 U.S.C. 16919); 

19 (2) prohibit the employment of a school em20 ployee as a school employee if such employee— 

21 (A) refuses to consent to a criminal back22 ground check under paragraph (1); 

23 (B) makes a false statement in connection 

24 with such criminal background check; 


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1 (C) has been convicted of a felony con2 sisting of— 

3 (i) homicide; 

4 (ii) child abuse or neglect; 

5 (iii) a crime against children, includ6 ing child pornography; 

7 (iv) spousal abuse; 

8 (v) a crime involving rape or sexual 

9 assault; 

10 (vi) kidnapping; 

11 (vii) arson; or 

12 (viii) physical assault, battery, or a 

13 drug-related offense, committed on or after 

14 the date that is 5 years before the date of 

15 such employee’s criminal background check 

16 under paragraph (1); or 

17 (D) has been convicted of any other crime 

18 that is a violent or sexual crime against a 

19 minor; 

20 (3) require that each criminal background 

21 check conducted under paragraph (1) be periodically 

22 repeated or updated in accordance with State law or 

23 the policies of local educational agencies served by 

24 the State educational agency; 


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1 (4) upon request, provide each school employee 

2 who has had a criminal background check under 

3 paragraph (1) with a copy of the results of the 

4 criminal background check; 

5 (5) provide for a timely process by which a 

6 school employee may appeal, but which does not per7 mit the employee to be employed as a school em8 ployee during such appeal, the results of a criminal 

9 background check conducted under paragraph (1) 

10 which prohibit the employee from being employed as 

11 a school employee under paragraph (2) to— 

12 (A) challenge the accuracy or completeness 

13 of the information produced by such criminal 

14 background check; and 

15 (B) establish or reestablish eligibility to be 

16 hired or reinstated as a school employee by 

17 demonstrating that the information is materi18 ally inaccurate or incomplete, and has been cor19 rected; 

20 (6) ensure that such policies and procedures are 

21 published on the website of the State educational 

22 agency and the website of each local educational 

23 agency served by the State educational agency; and 

24 (7) allow a local educational agency to share 

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1 ground check recently conducted under paragraph 

2 (1) with another local educational agency that is 

3 considering such school employee for employment as 

4 a school employee. 

5 (b) TRANSFER PROHIBITION.—A local educational 

6 agency or State educational agency that receives funds 

7 under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 

8 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.) may not knowingly transfer 

9 or facilitate the transfer of any school employee if the 

10 agency knows, or has substantive reason to believe, that 

11 such employee engaged in sexual misconduct with an ele12 mentary school or secondary school student. 

13 (c) FEES FOR BACKGROUND CHECKS.— 

14 (1) CHARGING OF FEES.—The Attorney Gen15 eral, State Attorney General, or other State law en16 forcement official may charge reasonable fees for 

17 conducting a criminal background check under sub18 section (a)(1). 

19 (2) ADMINISTRATIVE FUNDS.—A local edu20 cational agency or State educational agency may use 

21 administrative funds received under the Elementary 

22 and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 

23 6301 et seq.) to pay any reasonable fees charged for 

24 conducting such criminal background check. 

25 (d) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act: 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—The terms ‘‘elementary 

2 school’’, ‘‘secondary school’’, ‘‘local educational agen3 cy’’, ‘‘State’’, and ‘‘State educational agency’’ have 

4 the meanings given the terms in section 9101 of the 

5 Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 

6 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 

7 (2) SCHOOL EMPLOYEE.—The term ‘‘school em8 ployee’’ means— 

9 (A) an employee of, or a person seeking 

10 employment with, a local educational agency or 

11 State educational agency, and who, as a result 

12 of such employment, has (or will have) a job 

13 duty that results in unsupervised access to ele14 mentary school or secondary school students; or 

15 (B) any person, or an employee of any per16 son, who has a contract or agreement to provide 

17 services with an elementary school or secondary 

18 school, local educational agency, or State edu19 cational agency, and such person or employee, 

20 as a result of such contract or agreement, has 

21 a job duty that results in unsupervised access 

22 to elementary school or secondary school stu23 dents. 

Æ 


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