Last year, the Louisiana Legislature passed HB 156 (Frieberg) – now Act 745. It was a bill brought by the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) that allows the department to essentially put a tax on our state’s teachers. Teachers would have to pay the LDOE to run the same background check multiple times. The fee would apply to all current and future teachers at the time of certification or recertification, in addition to the background checks teachers already get when they become student teachers and those that the district runs when they're hired.
This is all in response to a 2019 FBI audit that revealed the LDOE is out of compliance with federal law on criminal history information. LDOE, under John White’s tenure, created this problem by not fully understanding the law and passing a series of legislation that contradicted federal standards as late as 2018. There are a lot of ways to bring Louisiana into compliance under this audit, but LDOE decided that the best solution was to pick the pockets of Louisiana’s teachers.
Background checks on all staff that interact with students are important. The problem with LDOE’s solution is that it would require teachers to shoulder the financial burden of these duplicate background checks. Teachers would have to pay an additional background check fee and some of that money would go directly to the Louisiana Department of Education.
On top of everything, this legislation will delay teachers seeking certification from entering the classroom, further exacerbating the teacher shortage, because there is already an extensive waiting period due to a backlog at the Louisiana State Police.
While HB 156 was passed last session, it doesn’t go into effect until June 2023, so we do have a chance during the next session to set things right. State Superintendent Cade Brumley and the LDOE can fix their mistake this legislative session, by introducing new legislation that will streamline the process and ensure teachers don’t bear the financial burden.