Bill aims to clarify Nevada school-volunteer policy

CARSON CITY — Lawmakers are hoping a new bill will alleviate confusion caused by a 2017 law that requires school volunteers to be fingerprinted and get background checks.

Senate Bill 185, sponsored by Sen. Heidi Gansert, R-Reno, would add flexibility to the school volunteer law and would exempt certain groups — such as college students seeking a teaching degree — from the process. The bill was heard in the Senate Education Committee on Monday.

Gansert was one of the sponsors of the 2017 bill that implemented the fingerprinting and background check requirements in what was an attempt at preventing “passing the trash,” a term for when educators or school staff with a record of abuse or inappropriate behavior manage to get hired at different schools or districts.

The law’s requirements caused a significant drop in the number of volunteers. At some Title I schools and at those in poor areas, many parent volunteers could not pay the roughly $50 for the background checks, said Rebecca Garcia, vice president of resource development for the Nevada PTA.

“For many of our families, $50 is the choice between groceries for that week or gas to drive to their job,” she said to lawmakers while testifying as neutral on the bill.

Another issue that arose was how different school districts interpreted the law’s language, which required the fingerprinting and background checks for people who had “regular” and “unsupervised” contact with students but didn’t define what those terms meant.

That led to some districts erring heavily on the side of caution, even requiring the checks for college students who were completing their required practicum in the classrooms while earning their teaching degrees.

“I don’t think any of us realized that it was going to impact our schools the way that it did,” Sen. Joyce Woodhouse, D-Henderson, said during the hearing Monday.

Gansert’s new bill is aimed at remedying some of those issues, including making it so students earning their degrees don’t need to be fingerprinted. People who are employed in positions that have already been background-checked and currently interact with children also would be exempt.

The Clark and Washoe county school districts expressed support for the bill, saying it would help them bring in more volunteers while keeping the heart of the original bill in place.

But some Nevada PTA representatives said Gansert’s new bill doesn’t clear up the confusion.

“The term ‘unsupervised’ remains unclear and is open to interpretation,” Nevada PTA Vice President of Advocacy DeaAnn Roberts said. “It is not at all clear who is required to be fingerprinted.”

Lawmakers took no action on the the bill Monday.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.