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BILL: SB 845
DATE: March 05, 2025
POSITION: Favorable with Amendments
COMMITTEE: Senate Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee
CONTACT: Mary Pat Fannon, Executive Director, PSSAM
The Public School Superintendents’ Association of Maryland (PSSAM), on behalf of all twenty-four local school superintendents, supports Senate Bill 845 with a requested amendment to remove the requirement to retroactively screen all current educators using this clearinghouse.
This bill requires that each local school system become an associate member of the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC) and use its Educator Identification Clearinghouse to screen all current and prospective educators, beginning July 1, 2025.
While the administrative costs for NASDTEC are minimal and, as indicated in the fiscal note, many Maryland school systems are already members, we oppose the bill’s requirement that systems retroactively screen all current educators. For systems with thousands of employees, this requirement is unreasonable, especially due to the existing and extensive security clearances and background checks required for school employees.
While the NASDTEC is a national collection point for professional educator discipline actions, it is a self-reporting database that should be seen as one tool, but not the epitome in the employment vetting process.
For the Committee’s information, below is information PSSAM solicited from the 24 LEAs last fall regarding background and clearance tools; approximately 16 school systems provided feedback. The survey did not include the following methods as they are currently required by law:
Fingerprinting: State and FBI results (note: these include a criminal check, but also the Adam Walsh Background Clearance Request form (DHR/SSA 1279A (03/2017 edition)
Form I-9 (by paper and by E-Verify where available)
Md. Code, Educ. §6-113.2 Child Sexual Abuse and Sexual Misconduct review (“HB 486 review”)
Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) TEACH database review
Other screening tools used, not listed above included:
MD Judiciary Case Search as an additional inquiry when applicable
CJIS fingerprinting
Workday Recruiting
MSDE Disqualified Substitute List and Department of Social Services for any claims of child abuse
AppliTrack (Unified Talent/PowerSchool)
Talent Ed (PowerSchool) (an application and form tracking system that can be used to keep forms such as 6-113 requirement)
Frontline
Basic Google search
Drug testing; Internal database review
In addition, it was reported by one school system that the MSDE-managed TEACH portal cross references data from the NASDTEC system; but PSSAM has been unable to verify this at this time.
As you can see, Maryland school systems take their responsibility to ensure the safety of students and staff very seriously, as well as ensuring the validity of teaching credentials.
Therefore, PSSAM supports Senate Bill 845 but kindly requests an amendment to remove the requirement that school systems retroactively screen all current educators using the NASDTEC.
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