                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

FINGERPRINTING REQUIRED; RECIPROCITY PERMITTED (§ 22.1-296.2)

A. As a condition of employment, the school boards of the Commonwealth shall
require any applicant who is offered or accepts employment, whether full time or
part time or permanent or temporary, to submit to fingerprinting and to provide
personal descriptive information to be forwarded along with the
applicant&#8217;s fingerprints through the Central Criminal Records Exchange to
the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the purpose of obtaining criminal
history record information regarding such applicant. The school board may (i)
pay for all or a portion of the cost of the fingerprinting or criminal records
check or (ii) in its discretion, require the applicant to pay for all or a
portion of the cost of such fingerprinting or criminal records check.
			The Central Criminal Records Exchange, upon receipt of an applicant&#8217;s
record or notification that no record exists, shall report to the school board,
which shall be a governmental entity, whether or not the applicant has ever been
convicted of a felony or a Class 1 misdemeanor or an equivalent offense in
another state.
			To conserve the costs of conducting criminal history record checks to
applicants and school boards, upon the written request and permission of the
applicant, a school board shall inform another school board with which
reciprocity has been established, and to which the applicant also has applied
for employment, of the results of the criminal history record information
conducted within the previous 90 days that it obtained concerning the applicant.
Criminal history record information pertaining to an applicant for employment by
a school board shall be exchanged only between school boards in the Commonwealth
in which a current agreement of reciprocity for the exchange of such information
has been established and is in effect. Reciprocity agreements between school
boards shall provide for the apportionment of the costs of the fingerprinting or
criminal records check between the applicant and the school board, as prescribed
in this section. However, school boards that enter into reciprocity agreements
shall not each levy the costs of the fingerprinting or criminal records check on
the applicant.

B. The division superintendent shall inform the relevant school board of any
notification of arrest of a school board employee received pursuant to &#xA7;
19.2-83.1. The school board shall require such employee, whether full time or
part time or permanent or temporary, to submit to fingerprinting and to provide
personal descriptive information to be forwarded along with the employee&#8217;s
fingerprints through the Central Criminal Records Exchange to the Federal Bureau
of Investigation for the purpose of obtaining criminal history record
information regarding such employee. The school board may (i) pay for all or a
portion of the cost of the fingerprinting or criminal records check or (ii) in
its discretion, require the applicant to pay for all or a portion of the cost of
such fingerprinting or criminal records check.
			The Central Criminal Records Exchange, upon receipt of an employee&#8217;s
record or notification that no record exists, shall report to the school board
whether or not the employee has been convicted of any of the offenses listed in
subsection A. The contents of the employee&#8217;s record shall be used by the
school board solely to implement the provisions of &#xA7;&#xA7; 22.1-307 and
22.1-315.

C. The Central Criminal Records Exchange shall not disclose information to the
school board regarding charges or convictions of any crimes not specified in
this section. If an applicant is denied employment or a current employee is
suspended or dismissed because of information appearing on his criminal history
record, the school board shall provide a copy of the information obtained from
the Central Criminal Records Exchange to the applicant or employee. The
information provided to the school board shall not be disseminated except as
provided in this section.

D. For the purposes of this section, &#8220;school board&#8221; includes the
Board of Visitors of the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind, which, for
the purpose of receiving criminal history record information pertaining to an
application for employment from the Central Criminal Records Exchange, shall be
a governmental entity.

HISTORY: 1988, c. 851; 1989, c. 544; 1990, c. 766; 1991, c. 342; 1992, cc. 641,
791; 1993, cc. 210, 458; 1994, cc. 232, 782; 1995, cc. 731, 781, 809; 1996, cc.
396, 467; 1997, cc. 444, 721; 1998, c. 412; 1999, c. 448; 2000, cc. 683, 774,
811; 2001, cc. 591, 677; 2022, c. 355; 2023, c. 670.