Code of Massachusetts Regulations › 603 CMR - DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION › Title 603 CMR 51.00 - Criminal History Checks For School Employees › Section 51.02 - Definitions

Current through Register 1525, July 5, 2024
As used in
				603 CMR 51.00, unless the
				context clearly requires otherwise, terms shall have the following
				meanings:
Board
: The Massachusetts Board of
				Elementary and Secondary Education or a person duly authorized by the
				Board.
Commissioner
: The Massachusetts
				Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education or his or her
				designee.
Conditional Employee
: An individual
				who may have direct and unmonitored contact with children hired by a school
				employer without the employer first obtaining the results of a state and
				national fingerprint-based criminal history check because the school employer
				determines that exigent circumstances exist as set forth in
				603 CMR
				51.05(4).
Criminal History Record Information
				(CHRI)
: Information provided by the FBI and the Massachusetts
				State Police State Identification Section, through the Massachusetts Department
				of Criminal Justice Information Services (DCJIS). CHRI is defined by the FBI as
				any notations or other written or electronic evidence of an arrest, detention,
				complaint, indictment, information or other formal criminal charge relating to
				an identifiable person that includes identifying information regarding the
				individual as well as the disposition of any charges.
Criminal Justice Information (CJI)
:
				For the purposes of
				603 CMR 51.00, CJI refers to
				data provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Criminal Justice
				Information Services Division (CJIS) to civil agencies to perform their
				mission; including, but not limited to data used to make hiring
				decisions.
Criminal Offender Record Information
				(CORI)
: Records and data in any communicable form compiled by a
				Massachusetts criminal justice agency which concern an identifiable individual
				and relate to the nature or disposition of a criminal charge, an arrest, a
				pre-trial proceeding, other judicial proceedings, sentencing, incarceration,
				rehabilitation, or release. Such information shall be restricted to that
				recorded as the result of the initiation of criminal proceedings or any
				consequent proceedings related thereto. Criminal offender record information
				shall not include evaluative information, statistical and analytical reports
				and files in which individuals are not directly or indirectly identifiable, or
				intelligence information. Criminal offender record information shall be limited
				to information concerning persons who have attained the age of 17 and shall not
				include any information concerning criminal offenses or acts of delinquency
				committed by any person younger than 17 years old; provided, however, that if a
				person younger than 17 years old is adjudicated as an adult, information
				relating to such criminal offense shall be criminal offender record
				information. Criminal offender record information shall not include information
				concerning any offenses which are not punishable by incarceration.
				Massachusetts school employers' access to, and treatment of, CORI is governed
				by M.G.L. c. 71, § 38R, M.G.L. c. 6, §§ 167 through 178B and
				803 CMR 2.00:
Criminal
				Offender Record Information (CORI)
.
Department
: The Massachusetts
				Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Department of Criminal Justice Information Services
				(DCJIS)
: The Commonwealth agency statutorily designated to provide
				a public safety information system and network to support data collection,
				information sharing and interoperability for the Commonwealth's criminal
				justice and law enforcement community and to oversee the authorized provision
				of CORI to the non-criminal justice community.
Direct and Unmonitored Contact with
				Children
: Contact with students when no other employee, for whom
				the employer has made a suitability determination pursuant to
				603 CMR 51.00 of the school
				or district is present. "Contact" refers to any contact with a student that
				provides the individual with opportunity for physical touch or personal
				communication. The school employer may determine when there is potential for
				direct and unmonitored contact with children by assessing the circumstances and
				specific factors including but not limited to, whether the individual will be
				working in proximity with students, the amount of time the individual will
				spend on school grounds, and whether the individual will be working
				independently or with others. An individual shall not be considered to have the
				potential for direct and unmonitored contact with children if he or she has
				only the potential for incidental unsupervised contact in commonly used areas
				of the school grounds.
Employee
: An individual working, or
				applying to work, in a Massachusetts public or private school. Employees shall
				include any apprentice, intern, or student teacher or individuals in similar
				positions.
National Criminal History Check
: The
				process of submitting fingerprints to the FBI and Massachusetts State Police
				(MSP) State Identification Section to obtain state and national criminal
				history record information.
School
: A Massachusetts public school,
				including a collaborative school, charter school, virtual school or innovation
				school; or a Massachusetts private day or residential school, including a
				special education school program approved under M.G.L. c. 71B; or a
				Massachusetts independent or parochial school or schools.
School Employer
: The superintendent of
				any city, town, or regional school district, principal, or other administrator
				of Massachusetts public or private schools, including a special education
				school program approved under M.G.L. c. 71B. For the purposes of an individual
				directly hired by a Massachusetts school committee, the school committee is the
				school employer.
Subcontractor or Laborer
: An
				individual not employed by the school employer but commissioned by the school
				committee or school, or employed by the city or town, or employed by a
				non-school employer under contract or lease with the school, school district,
				city, or town to perform work on school grounds or with students. Such
				individuals may be the employees of a contractor or vendor hired by a school,
				or may be independent contractors or service providers hired by a school or may
				be performing services on school grounds under a contract or lease with the
				school, school district, city or town.
Substitute Employee
: An individual who
				is employed, on a temporary basis, to take the place of an employee who is
				absent.
Suitability Determination
: A
				determination made by a school employer concerning whether anything contained
				in the individual's CHRI renders the individual unfit for employment that may
				include direct and unmonitored contact with children. A suitability
				determination may also be made by the Department of Elementary and Secondary
				Education.
Volunteer
: An individual who performs
				a service for a school employer on an unpaid basis, who is not an apprentice,
				intern or student teacher.