House Bill 288 will bolster teacher hiring

BOWLING GREEN, Ky – It’s something that our students need to be protected from and parents need to be aware of” said State Representative Kevin Jackson on the issue of House Bill 288.

A legislative move to help strengthen the hiring process, school districts will now have mandate in place when bringing on new employees. As of today, background checks are only required at the time of application, but now they will occur ever 5 years. Sexual misconduct training will occur as well on a 5 year cycle and follow ups would be conducted if you worked at a previous school district.

If passed, it would be a big help to “scan out bad characters”, words from Todd County’s superintendent, Mark Thomas.

The most impactful part of this amendment to an already existing KRS might be the 12 month report of misconduct, allegations and any investigations even if they were not substantiated.

For a full look at the bill under review, you can head to https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/23rs/hb288.html