Date: 2013-10-22
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. I want to thank Mr. ROKITA for presenting the bill and Mr. FITZPATRICK for his work on the legislation. I appreciate their assistance. Mr. Speaker. when parents send their children to school each morning. they expect them to come home safe from harm. Day in and day out. millions of teachers. staff. and administrators do their utmostsometimes in downright heroic waysto put their students safety first. But despite these efforts. there remains a steady stream of stories from across the country involving students who have been abused by someone in a position of trust in their schools. Just this past summer. a music teacher in a Silver Spring. Maryland. elementary school was found to have sexually abused 15 minors over an 8year period. In my home State of California. a teacher was convicted of throwing a 5yearold boy with a disability onto a classroom floor and kicking him and was transferred to another school for the following year. but was not fired due to legal limitations. The superintendent of the school district acknowledged that police were not informed after that horrible incident. To make matters worse. even after her conviction. this person was allowed to keep a desk job through the rest of the school year. still had her credentials. and could simply move to a new school to teach. putting more children at risk. We should be doing everything we can to prevent these abuses. A very fundamental place to start is to not employ predators in our schools in the first place. After I requested an investigation in 2010. the Government Accountability Office uncovered a wide range of cases in numerous States of convicted sex offenders who had previously targeted children. working in schools side by side with children. In some cases. these schools had unknowingly hired sex offenders. This happened because State laws are inconsistent in how they require schools to conduct background checks of their employees and what types of crimes are covered. In other cases. the Government Accountability Office found that districts knowingly passed on a potential predator and abuser to another school or school district. allowing the offender to resign instead of reporting him. Although every State requires some background checks. the checks are not always thorough. GAO found that some States only require checks for licensed teachers. but not other employees. And some States dont require criminal history checks for contractors at public schools. The GAO also found that at least half of the States lack any rules to ensure that child abuse allegations are not suppressed by school officials. and only a few States require schools to conduct recurring background checks on employees. The significant differences in the ways schools screen prospective employees lead to gaps in student protection. but a childs safety shouldnt depend on the State in which they reside. A patchwork of State laws fails to protect all children. and that simply is not good enough. We need minimum national standards to keep children safe from sexual predators and other violent adults. That is why I am proud to be the author of the Protecting Students from Sexual and Violent Predators Act. along with my cosponsors. This bill closes the loopholes. It would create consistency across States in backgroundcheck policy. requiring public schools to conduct comprehensive background checks for any employee or applicant for employment with unsupervised access to children. using State criminal and child abuse registries and the FBIs fingerprint database. as well as to periodically update these checks. Contractors in public schools with unsupervised access to students are also subject to these same background checks under this bill. It would prohibit school districts from hiring or retaining anyone who has been convicted of certain violent crimes. including crimes against children. crimes involving rape or sexual assault. or child pornography. Schools must be places where faculty and students can focus on teaching and learning. without fear of emotional or physical harm. Keeping students safe requires a coordinated effort from teachers. principals. superintendents. community partners. and parents. The vast majority of school staff is trustworthy and works hard every day to support students learning needs. I honor and respect their work. which is so central to the success of this Nation. The criminal background checks required in H.R. 2083 are essential to ensuring that schools and school districts are doing everything they can to protect children. Mr. Speaker. keeping children safe isnt a partisan issue. it is a moral obligation. And that is why I am pleased to see the strong bipartisan support from my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for this legislation. I want to thank the cosponsors in particular: Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. STIVERS. Mrs.