Did you know that in Texas, public school educators undergo the LEAST EXTENSIVE background checks of all major child-serving professions?

Foster parents, childcare workers, and even teenage household members in foster homes are vetted more thoroughly than many adults working in classrooms every day.

• No DFPS abuse/neglect registry checks required.

• No mental health or psychological screening conducted.

• No out-of-state CPS history reviews.

• No routine checks once someone is hired.

Hi! I’m a mother of two, a certified Texas educator, a state-approved foster parent, an approved licensed childcare provider, and the founder of a private school I established after witnessing, firsthand, systemic failures I could no longer ignore — failures that continue to harm the very children our schools are meant to protect.”

I’ve worked in both ISDs and charter schools. I hold a master’s degree in leadership, two degrees in criminal justice, and I’m certified in both general and special education. As a member of a public service family — with loved ones in law enforcement and former military —  I’ve seen how safety screenings and mental health clearances work in other professions where children and vulnerable people are at stake.

HOW DO I KNOW?

I’ve passed every background check Texas offers — and I’ve seen how different the standards are depending on the title you hold.

✔️ I’ve legally fostered and adopted through Texas DFPS

✔️ I’ve worked in licensed childcare centers and run a home-based program

✔️ I’ve taught in Texas public schools for over a decade

✔️ And now I run my own school — because I’ve seen the system fall short

🚩TEXAS’S 3 TIERS OF BACKGROUND CHECKS ~ Level 3 being the HIGHEST

 

🟢 Level 3 – Foster & Adoptive Parents

✔️ FBI + DPS fingerprint checks

✔️ DFPS Central Registry

✔️ CPS & criminal checks

✔️ Household member screening

✔️ Home studies, interviews, and rechecks

✔️ Patterns — not just convictions — can disqualify

A CPS “reason to believe” finding alone can disqualify a foster/adoptive parent.

 

🟡 Level 2 – Licensed Childcare Workers

✔️ FBI + DPS fingerprint checks

✔️ DFPS registry check

✔️ Fingerprinting if triggered (e.g. unsupervised access or out-of-state history)

✔️ Must be rechecked every 2 years

 

🔴 Level 1 – Public School Educators

✔️ FBI + DPS fingerprint check

✔️ TEA Do Not Hire Registry

✔️ Texas Sex Offender Registry

❌ No DFPS registry check

❌ No out-of-state CPS/abuse checks

❌ No routine re-checks

❌ No household screenings

❌ No psychological or mental health screening

❌ No flagging of domestic violence patterns or family violence unless criminally convicted

An individual disqualified from fostering can still legally teach — without detection.

⚠️ What TEA Does Not Automatically Check

❌ National Sex Offender Public Registry (NSOPR)

• TEA does not explicitly require this as a separate check.
• If a person has committed a sex crime in another state and is not registered in Texas, they may not show up in this system.

❌ Non-registrable offenses, expired registrations, or plea deals that didn’t require registration may not appear at all.

 

🌍 FOREIGN EDUCATORS on Visas - (e.g., J-1, H-1B) in Texas Schools

These are educators from other countries who:

🔹Are recruited to teach in U.S. public, charter, or private schools (often for foreign language, bilingual, STEM, or cultural exchange roles).

🔹Hold J-1 visas (cultural exchange) or H-1B visas (employment-based).

🔹Are not U.S. citizens or green card holders — and therefore, their foreign history is not automatically part of U.S. background systems.

 

Background Check Process (What IS Required)

🚩 STEP 1. FBI Fingerprinting via TEA/SBEC (if certified in Texas)

All foreign teachers SEEKING Texas certification must: not all choose to seek state certification and thus remain in Texas schools without proper background checks or fingerprinting clearance

• Get fingerprinted
• Undergo an FBI national criminal background check
• Be reviewed in the TEA Clearinghouse, DPS system, and sex offender registry (Texas only)

⚠️ But this only checks for offenses committed inside the U.S., NOT IN THEIR HOME COUNTRIES

🚩 STEP 2. Sponsor Screening

For J-1 visa holders, their visa sponsor agency is supposed to: sponsor = host school / district 

• Perform a pre-screening interview
  Review their teaching credentials
• Run a criminal background check in their home country

⚠️ However: This is not standardized across all countries.

• Many nations do not have centralized criminal record systems or don’t release those records.

• There’s NO U.S. government requirement that states or school districts verify the foreign background check was completed, or verify its accuracy.

   

🚩 STEP 3. District-Level Onboarding

The school district (ISD or charter) hiring the foreign educator must:

• Verify their visa/work eligibility
• Complete any internal HR screening processes
• MAY run additional local background checks — but these also won’t detect anything foreign.

 ⚠️  WHAT’S NOT CHECKED

Even with fingerprinting and certification, foreign national educators can be hired without:

❌ OUT-OF-COUNTRY SEX OFFENSE HISTORY

U.S. systems don’t access foreign sex offender registries

❌ FOREIGN CPS/ABUSE REGISTRY HISTORY

No visibility into protective services investigations abroad

❌ FOREIGN ARREST RECORDS

Not integrated with U.S. systems unless voluntarily disclosed

❌ HOUSEHOLD SCREENING

No inquiry into who the educator lives with while in the U.S.

❌ MENTAL HEALTH SCREENING

Not required by sponsors, states, or school districts

 

⚠️ Why This Matters

CHARTER SCHOOLS in Texas routinely employ J-1 and H-1B visa holders as full-time classroom teachers, especially in foreign language programs.

These teachers often:

• Work directly with minors
• May be unsupervised
• Are given the same authority as any U.S. educator — but without equivalent vetting

 

There have been documented cases where foreign teachers were later accused of misconduct or abuse in U.S. schools, and their past records (if they existed) were never known or considered.

 

WHAT THE LAW SAYS — AND WHERE IT FAILS

Texas Education Code Chapter 22, Subchapter C sets rules for required for ISDs and Open Charter school hiring

Under TEC §§ 22.0834–22.085, school employees must submit:

✅ Fingerprints ruling out CONVICTIONS

✅ FBI national criminal history + state DPS criminal history

✅ TEA Clearinghouse & Texas Sex Offender Registry

❌ Currently no requirement to review out-of-state CPS/child welfare history

❌ No mandate to check DFPS abuse/neglect registry

❌ No periodic re-checks once hired or with role changes

 

⚠️ LEGAL EXCEPTIONS THAT LEAVE CHILDREN AT RISK

🚩Contractor Loophole – TEC § 22.0834(a-1)

Fingerprinting not required if:

• The work finishes 7+ days before students arrive
• The contractor is “physically separated” from children (think of technology staff or staff who report to campus but remain  behind a closed door - and whose job title indicates they do not interact with children during work hours)

 

🚩Volunteer Loophole – TEC § 22.0835

Background check requirements for:

• Parents or grandparents (often used as a W.A.T.C.H. DOG, hall monitors, tutors, or event volunteers)
• Volunteers who are “always supervised”
• One-time event helpers
• Family member of staff or administrators who routinely visits the campus and has extensive access to areas of the building during school operating hours before and after school events (could also be a parent on PTO)
• outside agencies serving students for tutoring, therapy, or other related needs who walk the halls and have access to classrooms for observations and implementation supports 

Many adults still access children through loopholes — no checks required.

 

🚩 DOMESTIC ABUSE & FAMILY VIOLENCE PATTERNS GO UNSEEN

Educator background checks don’t screen for domestic violence and patterns of family violence unless there’s a criminal conviction.

That means:

• A teacher living with an abuser or themselves engaging in emotional/physical abuse at home can pass CPS findings of “CONCERNS” aren’t flagged
• Protective orders and family court records aren’t reviewed

These red flags don’t stop at the school door. If left unaddressed, they risk:

• Emotional grooming
• Displaced aggression or harm 
• Transference of mental health trauma to children

 

🧠 MENTAL HEALTH IS A CHILD SAFETY ISSUE

Mental health struggles don’t make someone dangerous. But untreated patterns, especially involving impulsivity, trauma, or stress instability, can impair decision-making and pose risk.

 

In law enforcement, the military, and foster care licensing — psychological screenings are standard. 

In education? They’re nonexistent.

Without them, we miss:

• Grooming tendencies
• Impulse control issues
• Dangerous behavior masked as charisma
• Unseen trauma that manifests as harm

 

⚖️ PUBLIC vs. CHARTER vs. PRIVATE — BACKGROUND CHECK GAPS & RISK AREAS

Fingerprinting Required

Public ISDs ✅ Yes 

Charter Schools ✅ Some

Private Schools ❌ No

 

DFPS Abuse Registry Check 

Public ISDs ❌ No

Charter Schools ❌ No

Private Schools ❌ No

 

Psychological Screening 

Public ISDs ❌ No

Charter Schools ❌ No

Private Schools ❌ No

Household Member Screening

Public ISDs ❌ No

Charter Schools ❌ No

Private Schools ❌ No

 

Out-of-State CPS/Criminal

Public ISDs ❌ No

Charter Schools ❌ No

Private Schools ❌ No

 

Visa Background Vetting 

Public ISDs - N/A 

Charter Schools ❌ Inconsistent 

Private Schools❌ No system

 

Routine Re-checks 

Public ISDs ❌ No

Charter Schools ❌ No

Private Schools ❌ No

 

TEA “Do Not Hire” Registry 

Public ISDs ✅ Certified only

Charter Schools ✅ Certified only

Private Schools ❌ Not enforced

A foster parent can be disqualified for a concern in their home — while a teacher, aide, or coach with the same history can be legally hired, deemed emotionally competent and allowed access to kids.

Questions should be raised as to how TEA justifiably screens for “emotional competence” and why this isn’t being done by a licensed medical professional. 

🛑 CHANGE MUST HAPPEN

We are calling on Texas lawmakers to pass the Safer Schools Alignment Act — a statewide initiative to implement standardized Risk Assessment protocols and significantly strengthen the depth of background checks and hiring requirements for all child-serving roles across public, charter, and private schools.

This law must:

✅ Develop a shared vetting system across charter/public schools for all visa-holding hires

✅ Require National DFPS abuse/neglect registry checks for all school personnel

✅ Mandate out-of-state CPS and criminal checks

✅ Add mental health screening and protocols to onboarding

✅ Require moral turpitude screening for all staff as an onboarding protocol

✅ Expand the TEA “Do Not Hire” list to include non-certified staff

✅ Mandate a full background check every 3–5 years or when relocating districts/entities

✅ Close contractor and volunteer loopholes

✅ Require transparency in what schools check — and what they don’t — to remove ambiguity

✅ Align policies across ISDs, open charters in Texas to remove barriers and loopholes

✅ Unify fingerprint-based systems across FBI, DPS, TEA, SBEC, DFPS, and HHSC to ensure flagged individuals are not overlooked

✅ Mandate cross-reporting of misconduct between state agencies and hiring entities

✅ Prevent re-hiring or transferring in child-serving roles after confirmed misconduct through centralized red-flag tracking

✅ Create true legislative accountability and inter-agency data alignment to safeguard children nationwide.

 

📣 WHAT YOU CAN DO 📣

🔁 Sign & share this petition

📬 Email it to your state representative, school board, and PTO

🗣️ Speak at your next public board meeting

 

📝 Ask your district:

• Do we screen for CPS history?
• Do we screen mental health and moral turpitude?
• Do we re-check employees every few years?
• Are our volunteers and contracted workers fingerprinted?

 

🗳️ Vote for leaders who value policy over politics — and children over credentials.

 

💡Because child safety should follow the child, not the agency.

💡Because red flags should matter before they become headlines.

💡Because no child should pay the price for what the system refuses to see.