Indiana puts a high priority on the safety of children. According to legislation enacted by the 1997 Indiana General Assembly, school systems throughout Indiana require a Limited Criminal History Check for all employees. Most school corporations also expect volunteers, field experience students, and student teachers to verify that they do not pose a threat to the children in the schools. And Limited Criminal History checks are required for teacher licensure.
Interns in the Teacher Education Program or the Aspiring Teacher Alternative Certification programs must meet the criminal history requirements of the schools where they are placed for field experiences and student teaching. This is challenging because criminal history checks are only good for 90 days, and every school corporation has different rules about criminal history checks.
In the Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) and other districts, each IU Indianapolis intern must have a criminal history form on file with the school district before they work with children. The central administration notifies principals when these forms are missing, and IU Indianapolis interns are not permitted to begin field experiences or student teaching.
To avoid this problem, IU Indianapolis interns must have criminal history checks on file with the school districts before each field experience, practicum, or student teaching experience.
Applying for a Criminal History Background Check
Each school district has its' own procedure for background checks
CHBC is done by district at no cost when intern is placed in Beech Grove Schools. Contact Kathy Comado, Secretary to Director of Instruction kcomado@bgcs.k12.in.us for further information.
The student will need to go to the Human Resources tab and on the left hand side is Safe Hiring Solutions.
Once on that site, select Certified Staff from the drop down tab. Then follow the instructions, and it will be saved for the background check.
This process is currently being revised. Please contact Kathy Garner (kegarner@iu.edu) if you have any questions.
If you have had an IPS SafeHire background check completed within the last 365 days, you DO NOT have to do another one. If you do not have a recent one, you will have to follow these instructions.
All student teachers, field experience participants, practicum students, interns and service learning participants are required to submit to an online expanded national criminal history search via Safe Hiring Solutions. We will no longer accept paper criminal checks/volunteer applications, as they are no longer valid.
The cost of the background check is approximately $34.45 and payable by Visa or MasterCard. If students have recently lived in another county, they may incur additional fees pertaining to a more detailed search.
Please note: the National Criminal History typically takes between 7- 14 business days to process, review and approve/deny.
If you have any questions, please contactDean Durish at durishd@myips.org
To complete a request for your National Criminal History:
An email is required to complete the National Criminal History
Select appropriate option in the ‘Position’ field:
Student teachers = ‘STUDENT TEACH’
Field Experience, Internship, Practicum, and/or Service Learning = FE/PR/IN
Complete the remaining required information
Upon successful submission, you will receive a confirmation number WRITE IT DOWN FOR YOUR RECORDS
The criminal history background check should be completed at least three weeks prior to student teaching. This is a national background check. Applicant should complete the criminal history background check form and submit the form with $28 to the Administration Building at 5275 Kentucky Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46221. Applicant may pay with cash, credit card, or personal check payable to MSD of Decatur Township.
Elementary and Secondary Education students do not need to contact the MSD Lawrence Township directly, because the School of Education will provide the required information to Lawrence in your behalf (full name, date of birth, gender, ethnicity). Lawrence will then perform the criminal history background check for you.
Secondary Aspiring Teacher Alternative Certification and Woodrow Wilson students are to contact Kim Morris (kimberlymorris@msdlt.k12.in.us) at MSD Lawrence Township and provide your full name, date of birth, gender, and ethnicity as soon as a placement is confirmed by the program coordinator.
To complete a request for your National Criminal History:
Select Background Checks (under Links on the right hand side)
You will then be directed to the page shown below. Enter in Name, Email, and Position of Student Teacher. **By selecting the wrong package price you may end up paying more money and not have the correct package mandated by the State of Indiana**
You will then get a username and password emailed to you to complete and pay for your background check. Typically within 24-48 business hours you will get the "kidstrak" emails sent to you to complete that step. (see below)
Miscellaneous notes:
If they give you the option to receive a report (and if that is free), you might want a copy for your records.
There is a cost – it’s around $30, but varies for each situation. The understanding is if you have moved around from different states, it costs more, etc.Basically, they charge by how much work they have to do to find out what they need.
Once you are finished, Safe Hiring will process it.That is only Step 1.
On Step 2, you will receive two separate emails from a site called “KidsTrak”.This is a Department of Child Services website that finishes the history search.Please follow the link they send you – it is safe.The second email from them gives you a password you will need.
Before your experience as student teacher can begin, we will need to have a background report on file. When you apply, please select “EMPLOYEE” as the type of application. This will require the use of your debit or credit card to pay the designated fee. Effective July 1, 2016, the Indiana Department of Education also requires all employees to not only have a full nationwide background report but to also have clearance from an “Expanded Child Protection Index.” The fee for that expanded report will be included with the application fee.
*Please note that there are two very distinct applications. Please let us know when you have completed it so that we can watch for the reports to clear.*
You could need a criminal history check as many as six different times as you progress through the teacher education program. It is your responsibility to have the needed checks for each school where you are assigned.
You will need criminal history checks specific to the school district(s) of your field experience placements. You can get these once you know the specifics of each field placement during your program. It is possible that you will need a new criminal history check each semester because each check is only good for 90 days.
You will need a criminal history check specific to the school district(s) of your student teaching placements. You may need a new one for each semester. Because these checks can take a couple weeks to process, you need to get checks done in the last week of July or the first week of August to be ready for the fall semester and in late November or early December for the spring semester.
You will need a Limited Criminal History Check when you apply for your Initial Teaching License. Get this within 60 days of the application.
If you have a felony, you will not be eligible to work in the schools. If you have a misdemeanor, the school district will be notified. The policies of the school district will determine whether or not you are eligible to teach in that district.
Sometimes student teachers are barred from beginning their field experience or student teaching because they have gotten married and changed their name and the criminal history check does not link up. Please use a hyphenated last name throughout the program on all paperwork if you change your name. This helps us to connect the dots and avoid issues. (For example Smith marries Jones, use Smith-Jones as a last name on forms and lists.)
Call the School District office. For IPS, call the Application Center at 317-226-4849. It is your responsibility to make sure the right check is on file. If you ask for a receipt when you get your criminal history check, it can save a lot of time retracing the source of the error.
You are required to report this to IU Indianapolis and schools.
IU Indianapolis will check all students going to IPS for Zachary Clearance and submit the appropriate paperwork to IPS.
Students admitted to a teacher education program must submit a Criminal History Check to the appropriate school district(s) prior to the start of school every fall.
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