Ohio wants 4,700 educators back in fingerprint-check system

COLUMBUS (AP) — About 4,700 licensed grade-school educators are missing from Ohio's fingerprint-tracking system that helps notify their employers about any new criminal charges against them, so they're being asked to voluntarily be fingerprinted again and get background checks while officials seek to fix a loophole that led to the problem.

At least 1,200 of those educators currently work in Ohio public schools, according to the state Department of Education.

The issue surfaced before the current school year, and the Department of Education has been checking the Ohio Court Network to make sure none of the educators in question has a noteworthy criminal case that merits notifying their employers in the meantime, state Superintendent Paolo DeMaria said. He said today no such instance has been found.

"We do have protections in place," but the court-checking method is cumbersome, sporadic and thus not a long-term solution, he said.

The department most recently conducted those court checks about a month ago, spokeswoman Brittany Halpin said. The time lapse lends impetus for a more permanent solution because if an affected educator had a new criminal case in the past month, the department and the school district wouldn't necessarily know about it yet.