Do CC's/Universities fall under Department of Education?

[QuarkCharmer]

I am trying to figure out whether or not an employee of a University or Community college would technically be working for the Department of Education? The reason I ask is that I have a juvenile criminal charge that is sealed. I can deny the charge ever took place except when applying for employment with the FBI, Department of Education, and such. I was falsely accused of a crime, and the court dropped the case, and I had it sealed. (That's all you can do in my state, innocent until proven guilty...). Anyway, how do schools go about their background check? Would this count as the Department of Education ?

 

[Pengwuino]

They're all state entities as far as I know and are not affiliated with the Department of Education. If they're private, they definitely don't have affiliations with them I would think.

 

[QuarkCharmer]

Yeah I know this has virtually no impact on a normal job, or private universities and so on, but I was unsure whether a State school or Community College falls under the DoE. I know I would have to disclose this information if I wanted to teach Highschool for instance, but at a University?

 

[mege]

Does 'job in the DoEd' mean national dept or your state's DoEd? If it means state DoEd, then it matters how the individual state organizes their state schools (and CC/Universities may even be managed differently). The national Department of Education actually has no formal ownership over any school at any level (it's really just a money clearing house for public education and a 'standards' organization).

It may even be a good question for someone at the school. If you're applying for a job there, contact their HR department - you may be able to do so without giving any personal information.

 

[QuarkCharmer]

The law is this:

(a) The subject of a criminal history record sealed under this section or under other provisions of law, including former s. 893.14, former s. 901.33, and former s. 943.058, may lawfully deny or fail to acknowledge the arrests covered by the sealed record, except when the subject of the record:

Is seeking to be employed or licensed by the Office of Teacher Education, Certification, Staff Development, and Professional Practices of the Department of Education, any district school board, or any local governmental entity that licenses child care facilities.

 

[Pengwuino]

None of those agencies have anything to do with jobs at CCs and Universities. The idea is to know of criminal records for people working with children, which is not something CCs and Universities do.

 

[QuarkCharmer]

I forgot to paste the most recent section there:

Is seeking to be employed or licensed by the Department of Education, any district school board, any university laboratory school, any charter school, any private or parochial school, or any local governmental entity that licenses child care facilities;

I'm not sure what the heck a University Laboratory School is?

It's really not a big deal, but perhaps someone will take into account the accusation before I can explain it, regardless of my innocence. I would rather not go through the embarrassment if I don't have to.

 

[Pengwuino]

Our university has a lab school and i was just about to mention in my previous post that I'm not sure how they come into play. Our lab school is part of the Education Department at our University and what it does is work with actual K-12 schools (which is a hell of a lot more convenient now since they built a damn high school on our campus) to do whatever the hell education departments do. So it definitely is something solely for jobs that have something to do with children. If the job has nothing to do with K-12 children, this has nothing to do with you I'm pretty sure.

 

[Angry Citizen]

If the court dropped the case (IE you weren't convicted), then what exactly is the problem? I would disclose it regardless, just in case.

 

[bcrowell]

The answer might depend on what state you're in. While I was an adult student in California I was arrested multiple times for civil disobedience at demonstrations, but I was never convicted of anything. I teach at a community college in California, and frankly it never even occurred to me when applying that I had anything to disclose. It's never been an issue. An arrest is not a criminal record. I don't remember the language on the employment application, but it probably asked about convictions, not arrests.

We had a guy who applied for a part-time teaching job at my school, and we wanted to hire him, but he had an old conviction from shooting tin cans (presumably while inebriated) out in the desert. I don't know what the actual charge was, but presumably it was a misdemeanor. We did have to go through some formalities before we could hire him. I think we had to get someone at HR to sign off and say that it was irrelevant because it was so minor and such a long time ago. We were motivated to go through that process because we already knew him well and we wanted to hire him.

My advice would be that you should absolutely not disclose this to anyone when you apply for a job, ever. Morally, you're innocent until proven guilty. Practically, there is no central database of arrests (as opposed to convictions), so they won't find out. Keep in mind that if you show the bill of rights to a sampling of Americans, roughly half will say they disagree with it. If you've ever been on a criminal jury, you've probably seen how roughly half of your fellow jurors believe that if someone has been arrested, he must have done something wrong.

 

[QuarkCharmer]

I agree with you, hence this question. Despite is actually happening to me, I am still guilty of judging people based on the severity of their crime and their arrest. I just wanted to make sure before I check the "no" box on applications.

 

[twofish-quant]

I teach at a community college in California, and frankly it never even occurred to me when applying that I had anything to disclose. It's never been an issue. An arrest is not a criminal record. I don't remember the language on the employment application, but it probably asked about convictions, not arrests.

And in California it happens to be illegal for an employer to ask about an arrest that did not lead to a conviction.

Every state has different rules

http://www.workplacefairness.org/state-laws-on-employee-arrest-and-conviction-records

My advice would be that you should absolutely not disclose this to anyone when you apply for a job

You should generally not disclose information unless specifically asked. In a lot of situations, the employer will not ask because it is illegal for them to do so, and if you are in a state where the law prevents the employer from using an arrest or conviction record, then the employer would be happier if you didn't volunteer the information since what they don't know can't be used as a topic of a discrimination suit.

A lot of what HR does is to enforce regulations on hiring.