The impact of ciminal background checks on the selection of school volunteers as reported by human resource professionals of selected Texas public school districts

摘要

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of criminal backgroundchecks on the selection of school volunteers as reported by human resourceprofessionals in selected Texas public school districts. Ninety Texas school districtswere randomly selected for this study, and results were categorized by the size of theschool district based on student population.Survey responses were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. AChi-square analysis was performed to determine if there were significant differences (p? 0.05) in responses to research questions based on size of the school district.Findings in the study included the following:1. There was no difference in the school district approach to policy andprocedure development based on the size of the school district as itpertained to criminal background checks of school volunteers.2. There was no difference in response rate based on the size of the schooldistrict regarding type of offense, number of offenses, adjudication process,and type of criminal history data search.3. There was a significant difference (p ? 0.05) in approach between largesizedand small-sized school districts regarding the acceptable timeframeconcerning recency of offense on a volunteer criminal history record.4. There was no difference in response rate based on the size of the schooldistrict regarding the effectiveness of criminal background checkprocedures in eliminating potential volunteers who might pose a threat orrisk to teachers, staff, and students.The following are recommendations for further study:1. A similar study could assess the responses from teachers, staff, and/orstudents to determine if these different education categories possessdifferent perceptions regarding the impact of criminal background checkson school volunteers.2. A further study could analyze the specific written policies of school districtsand determine the decision criteria for each level of offense.3. This study focused on school volunteers. A research study couldspecifically focus on the impact of criminal background checks on parentvolunteers, or conversely be more general, focusing on the impact ofcriminal background checks on professional or auxiliary employees.