CORI Checks within GDRSD

Some concerns have recently been raised about a situation in which it was discovered that a part-time substitute janitor had been hired without the District being aware of his record as a sex offender. This article provides some information on what GDRSD currently does for background checks, the circumstances of the case in question, and the procedural changes that the District is considering.

The Groton Dunstable Regional School District has a well documented hiring practice that includes a mandatory CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information) check on all employees before they are hired.

The interview process for school employees varies, depending on the position. Some positions have interview teams, some positions may have just a few individuals interviewing candidates. Site managers (principals and department heads) have primary responsibility for identifying finalist(s). The superintendent participates by interviewing final candidates, and then consults with each site manager before making the final hiring decision.

The District updated its policy and procedures regarding CORI checks a year ago, in compliance with stricter state regulations. The policy requires CORI checks to be done on everyone who comes in contact with kids who are under the supervision of the District. This includes all parent volunteers and any contractors who work during the school day.

The District's CORI check authorization form asks for last name, first name and middle name; maiden name or alias if applicable; mother's maiden name; place and date of birth; social security number, former address(es), sex, height, weight, eye color, and driver's license number. The person signing the form must attest to the accuracy of the information and authorizes GDRSD to check criminal records for any criminal conviction, non-conviction, and pending criminal case information associated with their name.

The District currently conducts CORI checks by searching the Massachusetts criminal records database. It is widely recognized that CORI checks are not a failsafe means of identifying those who may pose some kind of threat to society. The results are sometimes inaccurate and overturned on appeal. In other cases, the results inaccurately show a clear record because of limitations in the background search.

Local and State Police have access to other criminal database records for the purpose of criminal investigations. However, the school district may not access or request that the police use these methods during a hiring procedure.

The case in question...

In the case of David Graves, the part-time "on-call" custodian, the District did a CORI check on Graves' background before he was hired. The results of the CORI check showed no indication of any issues related to his being a sex offender. The District believes this was because:

• Graves' offense occurred when he was a juvenile. Certain juvenile offenses do not show up on a CORI. If he had been an adult when the offense occurred, the offense would have shown up on a CORI check, regardless of whether he was registered as a sex offender.
• Graves moved out of state before attending a SOR hearing, which would have determined his status. Every person who is required to register with the sex offender registry has a hearing to determine if they are a level 1, 2, or 3, where level 3 is considered to be the most dangerous. Until someone is officially classified, they are listed as level 0. It is not clear why the state did not classify Mr. Graves in absentia.
• Although Graves apparently notified the SOR board when he moved out of state, it appears that he did not notify them about his return.

As soon the District learned about Graves' background, he was instructed not to show up for work.

It is not clear yet whether the result of a SORI (sex offender records information) check would have revealed any concern about Graves' background. For persons classified as Level 0, the record may have appeared to be clean at this point. However, the superintendent would have considered that as a Level 0, this would mean that there was cause for sex offending classification, requiring further investigation. Level 0 seems to be a rather ambiguous rating.

Changes being considered to avoid future problems...

Superintendent Genovese has spoken with other superintendents, district administrators, and local police to discuss ways in which the hiring process could be improved.

• The Superintendent plans to recommend that CORI checks include a search of New Hampshire criminal records databases, as well as the ones currently being done in Massachusetts. They will consider recommending that any new hire that has recently relocated from another state be queried in those states as well. However, the more extended database searches may involve some additional expense and time delays in the hiring process. For example, NH criminal records database queries cost $15 each. He is considering passing this cost onto the prospective applicants.
• They will also consider mandating the use of Social Security Numbers for CORI checks. (The current process does not require the use of SSNs, since searches can be conducted by name. ) However, individuals who want to bypass the system can present a false id with something as simple as a letter change in their last name, which would return a "no match" during a CORI search. They will also adopt the practics of doing Google searches on new hires, which often provides identifying information that may not be recorded in a CORI.
• GDRSD hiring practices currently do not include SORI (Sex Offender Record Information) checks. The district is in the process of examining the benefit of conducting SORI checks in addition to CORI checks. Both checks have no processing fee in Massachusetts, but do take time. Since SORI checks cannot be done online, they would require extra time for processing. Also, it is not clear at this time whether the SORI checks would return results for Level 1 sex offenders. Any decisions regarding operational changes in hiring procedures or policy changes will be implemented by the superintendent and reported to the School Committee at at later date.