Photo courtesy of Scott Surovell
State Sen. Scott Surovell
Sen. Scott Surovell (D-Mt. Vernon) has introduced legislation that will keep schools informed when one of their employees is arrested or convicted of certain felony offenses including sex offenses or facilitation of prostitution.
Earlier this year, Fairfax County Public Schools discovered that a school counselor had continued employment for two years following an arrest for solicitation of prostitution from a minor after he was arrested for the same violation two years later.
At this time, it is still unclear where the breakdown in legally required notification occurred, but it also appears the individual failed to provide accurate employment information after his first arrest. Surovell’s bill would ensure notification, an employment verification and a paper trail to verify that notification had taken place by both law enforcement and the court.
Protecting children from employees with certain felony records has been a priority for the General Assembly and Surovell specifically for several years.
In 2021, Surovell worked with Del. Charniele Herring (D-Alexandria) to modernize Virginia’s criminal conviction record keeping and reporting system. Surovell and Herring's 2021 legislation, SB1339/HB1283, came at the recommendation of the Virginia Crime Commission and it will provide fully automated notification of criminal record changes to public and private employers who request criminal background checks.
That system is powered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Next Generation Identification Record of Arrest and Prosecution Back service (also known as RAP Back). The Virginia State Police is slated to begin utilizing that service upon deployment of their new criminal recordkeeping system on July 1, 2025.
As a transition to the RAP Back system, Surovell’s bill, SB821, will require that each school division superintendent provide updated contact information to the Department of Education for the purposes of receiving reports when a division employee is arrested for certain offenses and requires notification to occur through specifically designated means.
The bill requires notification by both law enforcement and the Clerk of Court, and requires that the arresting agency verify a defendant’s employment information from the Virginia Employment Commission to determine whether the arrestee requires such a report to be filed in case the defendant does not provide accurate employment information. A report will also be filed anytime someone with a Board of Education license is convicted of certain felonies.
“Pending the deployment of RAP Back, this legislation is intended to resolve a problem where a clerical error can put children in danger,” Surovell said. “I think we all wish it wasn’t necessary to take precautions like this, but we need to be sure that proper notification gets to the right person when certain convictions are handed down and when arrests are made.”
The next step for the legislation will be a committee hearing in the Senate of Virginia sometime soon after the General Assembly convenes in Richmond on Jan. 11, 2023. If it is approved by the legislature and signed by the governor, it will become law in July 2023.
