Annual Certification and Statement of Compliance

The Texas Education Code (TEC) requires that the superintendent of a school district or chief operating officer of an open-enrollment charter school will certify annually to the commissioner that the district or charter school has performed all required criminal history checks on employees and complied with the law relating to the employment of individuals convicted of certain offenses. Notification of the requirement will be made via the 'To the Administrator Addressed' correspondence on the TEA website. You may also subscribe to the TEA listserv.  

Chapter 22, Subchapter C, of the TEC requires school districts and charter schools to ensure that certain individuals are fingerprinted to undergo a national criminal history records review and the other individuals undergo a name-based criminal history record information review. The requirements include:

  • Performing all required criminal history checks on employees. 
  • Ensuring that all district contractors perform criminal history checks on contractor employees who have the opportunity for direct unsupervised contact with the district’s students.
  • Discharging or refusing to hire any individual who has been convicted of an offense described in TEC §22.085(a).
  • Not allowing any contractor employee who has been convicted of an offense described in TEC §22.085(a) to serve at the district or charter.     

The following links list those districts and open-enrollment charter schools who failed to return the “Criminal History Compliance Certification” for the school year indicated, and have therefore failed to certify their compliance with TEC §22.085(f). 

Note:  The inclusion of schools on these lists does not mean they have failed to conduct the background checks as required in TEC Chapter, 22, Subchapter C, only that they have not completed the Compliance Certification as requested.