Transcript for: “Criminal Background Screening: School Staff and Teachers” video. 

Slide 2 

Participating private schools are responsible to ensure that their owners, employees and contracted 
personnel meet the standards set out in state scholarship statutes. Schools must deny employment to 
anyone who fails to meet screening standards. 

Slide 3 

Florida law sets out three types of private school personnel and describes screening standards for each. 
An individual may fall into more than one category. 

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Owner/Chief Administrative officer: This could be the actual owner of school, or the school’s 
headmaster or principal. Florida law requires all private school owners to undergo at least a Level I 
(state) screening, and forbids anyone who has been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude to 
own or operate a private school. Moral turpitude is generally defined as anything contrary to justice, 
honesty, principle, or good morals. 

For schools that participate in scholarship programs, if the CAO is an employee of the school or has 
direct contact with scholarship students, he or she is also required to submit fingerprints for a Level II 
screening through the VECHS system and must meet additional screening standards. 

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Employees or contracted personnel with direct student contact must submit their fingerprints to FDLE 
via VECHS for a Level II (nationwide) criminal background history report. Schools must compare the 
results against the list of disqualifying offenses found in Section 435.04. 

Don’t run the risk of missing the compliance renewal deadline by waiting too late to schedule your 
inspection. There may be too many private schools in your area for your local fire department to inspect 
in the weeks leading up to the deadline. 

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Employees with direct student contact could include positions like bus driver, after school program 
leaders, coaches, or assistant principal. 

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Teachers, support staff and school administrators must meet the screening requirements listed in 
section 1012.315. No one who has been convicted of a crime on the list may be employed in any 
position that involves unsupervised student contact. 


Examples of employees in this category (in addition to teachers) are librarians, counselors, and 
therapists. 

Teachers, support staff, and therapists, for example, who are employed or contracted by the school 
must meet the requirements in both 435.04 and 1012.315. 

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Continued employment of an individual who is disqualified under Section 435.04 causes a private school 
to be ineligible for participation in a scholarship program. Statute requires the Department to suspend 
payment of scholarship funds to a school with employees that fail the Section 1012.315 screening, and 
to prohibit the school from enrolling new scholarship students for at least 1 fiscal year. 

Criminal Background Screening is important for your school’s compliance, and for students’ safety. 

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For more information on this topic, contact our office at (800) 447-1636 or email us at 
schoolchoice@fldoe.org.