House Passes Legislation to Protect Students from Sex Offenders in Schools

Press Release

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation today that would prevent registered sex offenders and criminals convicted of crimes against children from working in schools. By a vote of 314to 20, H.R. 6547, The Protecting Students from Sexual and Violent Predators Act, passed with significant bipartisan support.

he legislation would, for the first time on a federal level, require public schools to conduct comprehensive background checks for any employee using state criminal and child abuse registries and the FBI's fingerprint database.

It would also prohibit from hiring or retaining anyone who has been convicted of certain violent crimes, including crimes against children, crimes involving rape or sexual assault, and child pornography.

"Today's vote is a major victory for our children and parents. The current system of ensuring our students' safety in school is broken --it has huge gaps that are allowing our children to be vulnerable to sexual predators. The legislation we passed today will require the necessary steps by all public schools to keep our students safe from sexual predators in schools," said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. "This legislation will prevent more children from being put in unsafe environments because the adults who are responsible for their well being failed to do their jobs. With the bipartisan support we saw today for this legislation, I am confident we will continue to work on this issue in the next Congress."

"I am pleased that the House passed the Protecting Students from Sexual and Violent Predators Act, requiring criminal background checks for school employees," said U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities. "This bipartisan legislation addresses the concerns that came from a recent GAO report, which identified instances where school employees with histories of sexual misconduct, were working in schools. As someone who has focused on preventing violence and keeping children safe in schools, I was extremely concerned about the information contained in that report. Congress has recognized that it is unacceptable that our children are being put at risk because of system loopholes and I applaud my colleagues for taking steps towards common sense legislation to address this serious problem."

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