PHOENIX — State lawmakers voted Wednesday to close a loophole in a law that allows schools to hire convicted felons.
On a voice vote, the Senate gave preliminary approval to a proposal by Sen. Barbara Leff, R-Paradise Valley, to prohibit public schools from hiring non-teaching staffers such as security guards, janitors, teaching aides and bus drivers who have been convicted of some crimes.
State law already requires districts fingerprint all employees. That process includes checking to see if they've been convicted of any of a number of specifically listed crimes, ranging from murder and rape to misdemeanor drug offenses.
But Leff discovered that the law, at least for non-teaching personnel, says only that a district may refuse to hire or may fire people convicted of those crimes. And she said a Phoenix TV station report showed some districts have hired people with criminal records.
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"In every case, district officials admitted that they knew about the criminal convictions but hired the employees anyway," she said.
The TV report checked the records of security guards at six Maricopa County schools, finding a dozen workers with convictions that included assault, transporting drugs, disorderly conduct and unlawful discharge of a firearm.
Those last two wouldn't disqualify someone from employment in a non-teaching position under the language Leff added to HB 2727. But she said the existing law is so loose that people convicted of far more serious crimes, including murder, rape, robbery, child abuse, molestation and kidnapping, can be employed.
The list of 24 unacceptable convictions in Leff's proposal also includes misdemeanor drug offenses. That concerned Sen. Jorge Garcia, D-Tucson.
"Drugs are continuing to destroy our society," he said. But he said the fact is that young people experiment with drugs.
"I would hate to exclude a kid because he fell into that trap — and we're speaking of a misdemeanor — from future employment, good employment, in a school district," he said.
Mike Smith, Arizona School Administrators Association lobbyist, said his main concern with what Leff wants is that it is not prospective only.
He said it means districts will have to go back through employee lists and fire anyone who has a conviction for any of the listed crimes, even if there was a good explanation.
Vince Yanez, executive director of the state Board of Education, said the process is different for teachers and administrators. He said anyone seeking certification for either of those kind of positions is checked for possible convictions in more than 100 specific crimes.
The most serious of these, Yanez said, are automatic disqualifiers. But he said state law allows people convicted of some other crimes to be certified anyway if they can convince both the state Board of Fingerprinting and the state Board of Education that their record should not bar them from teaching.
The amended version of HB 2727 still needs final Senate approval before going back to the House to review the changes.
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There is no policy that prohibits convicted felons from working in the Tucson Unified School District, spokeswoman Chyrl Hill Lander said. However, when people apply for a job, they're asked if they've ever been convicted of a felony. If they respond affirmatively, Lander said, the application is flagged for further scrutiny.
Applicants convicted of child- or drug-related crimes are automatically disqualified, she said. "All other crimes are handled on a case-by-case basis."
The practice made headlines for Tucson's largest school district in the past.
Slightly more than one year after he pleaded guilty to a felony, former Santa Cruz County Schools Superintendent Robert Canchola resurfaced in education at Tolson Elementary School, 1000 S. Greasewood Road, in TUSD.
In June 2006, Canchola received a 60-day jail sentence and was placed on three years' supervised probation and ordered to perform 250 hours of community service after he admitted that, as superintendent, he failed to notify county officials of his wife's connection to a consulting business that was awarded school-related contracts between 1999 and 2003.
Indicted on 40 counts involving public funds, he was accused of misusing, stealing or having a conflict of interest in awarding funds to others, Canchola agreed to resign immediately and pay $42,000 in restitution.
— George B. Sánchez
