March 7, 2008 - The Philadelphia Inquirer has an article on tougher checks for school personnel and legislation advocated by PA School Watch founder and executive director Tina Tranauskas.
PA School Watch is actively working with legislators to create background checks for all current Pennsylvania teachers who have been exempted in the past, fingerprinting of everyone who works with children, and notification when an educator is arrested.
Under current law, school employees, student teachers, and outside vendors working in schools who were hired before April 1, 2007, are not required to be fingerprinted. The fingerprints of new and prospective employees are not kept, and law enforcement agencies are not required to notify schools of employee arrests.Links to the bills are provided.
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TT - PA School Watch does more than publicize teacher misconduct. The non-profit actively works with legislators to reform education, educating them on the problems and working to find solutions. It's a model organization that every state could use.
