SEP 2 7 2007 Old Adobe Diane P. Zimmerman, Ph.D. Superintendent Union School District*

Recommendations 12

• R1
  Each public school district in Sonoma County should have at least one employee who is trained and authorized to access DOJ website within an official and specified schedule. This employee should fully understand the way in which information is to be communicated. Further, in the absence of this employee, a suitable alternate person or system should be in place to responsibly retrieve valuable information as it is posted. This system should also cover notices from the DOJ sent via U.S. Mail. Response: The Confidential Classified Personnel Technician is designated as the person responsible for accessing all fingerprint information, and has been trained in the requirement of confidentiality. The superintendent serves as the chief Personnel Officer and reviews all active fingerprint records to make a determination about employment.
• R4
  School districts should consider changing their policies to require successful employee applicants to pay for their own fingerprinting and background responses from DOJ and FBI. There is at least $65,000 in 06-07 school district budgets for fingerprinting. As costs are shifted to paid employees, districts could use savings to fund costs for volunteers. Response: We currently require substitutes to pay for their live scan fees and we cover the DOJ costs. For employees we seek to hire, we cover the costs. At this time we are suffering from a critical shortage of employees in the areas of bus driver, custodian, campus supervisor, and instructional assistant. Requiring prospective entry level employees to pay for a mandated requirement for employment could further reduce the applicant pool. In addition we have a far greater flow of volunteers than we have in employment changes, so the cost would not be offset.
• R5
  School districts should amend their policies, if needed, to allow for volunteers names to be public information and readily available so that a greater scrutiny is provided. Response: All volunteers at our schools are required to sign in each time they visit a school. The sign in sheets are available for public scrutiny.
• R6
  Schools should routinely check out names of adult volunteers on Megan's Law website (a public posting of sexual predators) even if fingerprinting is scheduled, and always do so if no fingerprinting is scheduled for that volunteer. Response: Thank you for your input. Most of our volunteers are parents and are always under teacher's physical and visual supervision. Any interns or mentors working directly with children without supervision are fingerprinted.
• R7
  School districts should request criminal activity record from the Sonoma County Superior Court Records Division on any adult wanting to volunteer with students. This service is available at no cost to a district. Response: Thank you for the input. We were not aware of this service and will be looking into it.
• R8
  School districts should, individually or collectively, request that the DOJ implement a system à to confirm school district receipt of Notices of Subsequent Arrest. A system that would require the DOJ to follow up if no confirmation was received would at least give school districts some assurance that information trusted to the U.S. Mail or electronic mail servers is actually being received. Response: Thank you for the input. In the interest of efficiency, and so as to not duplicate efforts, we will request that our county superintendent look into this.
• R9
  School districts should request FBI responses on all classified employees and volunteers that they do a DOJ response regardless of the time they have lived in California. The relatively small fee of $24 to get prior criminal activity from a national database seems justifiable, reasonable and the right action to take. Thank you for the input. Our Board and administration will take this Response: recommendation under advisement.
• R10
  School districts should require fingerprinting for all adults (paid and volunteer) involved in athletic programs, overnight field trips, off-campus field trips, and any school sponsored student activity that occurs outside of the normal school day or hours. Response: Most of the chaperones are parents or Old Adobe alumni. If they will be alone with children, we require fingerprinting. School districts should implement provisions of Education Code Sections 33193 and
• R11
  45125.2 requiring that certain independent contractors and employees of contractors undergo fingerprinting and background checks. Response: We already do this
• R13
  School districts should not allow new employees to begin work until all pre-employment requirements are met. Most specifically, this means that all fingerprinting and criminal history responses that are required must have been completed and properly evaluated. Response: We already do this The S.O. should make available to all school districts information on how to access
• R14
  services available to them through the S.O. that would aid districts in determining if individuals should be approved to serve as volunteers in our schools and at school sponsored activities. We are always willing to work with public agencies to assure the safety of our Response: children.
• R15
  School districts should require all volunteers to sign an agreement that outlines behavior do's and don'ts and consequences if agreement terms are broken. Response: Thank you for the input. Our Board and administration will take this recommendation under advisement.