The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of criminal background
checks on the selection of school volunteers as reported by human resource
professionals in selected Texas public school districts. Ninety Texas school districts
were randomly selected for this study, and results were categorized by the size of the
school district based on student population.
Survey responses were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. A
Chi-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 and
procedure development based on the size of the school district as it
pertained to criminal background checks of school volunteers.
2. There was no difference in response rate based on the size of the school
district 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 largesized
and small-sized school districts regarding the acceptable timeframe
concerning recency of offense on a volunteer criminal history record.
4. There was no difference in response rate based on the size of the school
district regarding the effectiveness of criminal background check
procedures in eliminating potential volunteers who might pose a threat or
risk to teachers, staff, and students.
The following are recommendations for further study:
1. A similar study could assess the responses from teachers, staff, and/or
students to determine if these different education categories possess
different perceptions regarding the impact of criminal background checks
on school volunteers.
2. A further study could analyze the specific written policies of school districts
and determine the decision criteria for each level of offense.
3. This study focused on school volunteers. A research study could
specifically focus on the impact of criminal background checks on parent
volunteers, or conversely be more general, focusing on the impact of
criminal background checks on professional or auxiliary employees.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/2447 |
| Date | 29 August 2005 |
| Creators | Smith, Richard Kimball |
| Contributors | Stark, Stephen L. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | 1347003 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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