I recently heard about a very experienced teacher who retired but then applied to be a substitute teacher in a new district who had to wait three months to get approved even though that district was desperate for teachers! 

This kind of seems criminal, but from what it seems to me, the school district has to send all the fingerprints, etc., to the state for approval.  Now, I imagine they do the usual background check, so why should it take so long?  I thought they would have the best access to data bases or even something proprietary like the acs data search.  I know more and more employers access just everything about a person’s life in while checking employment background.  And that probably takes extra time, but with all the companies that provide background check solutions, things have sped up simply due to competition.  The state should have more resources than anybody, practically like the FBI.  But if not, they should really look into these companies!  Or at least do a little cross-referencing with the state’s department of education!

The checks on this lady the first time around must have been extensive, the need for subs now is great, and I even bet that the state periodically runs current teachers through the databases just to make sure that no one has slid into perdition.  So wouldn’t that save a lot of time instead of starting the check from scratch?

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