16 V.S.A. § 254a: Agency of Education employees

(a) The Agency of Education shall request criminal record information for a person the Secretary of Education is prepared to recommend for any full-time, part-time, or temporary employment or contractual relationship with the Agency if such person will have or has the potential to have unsupervised contact with students (the applicant).

(b) After signing a user agreement, the Secretary shall make a request for criminal records directly to the Vermont Crime Information Center.

(c) A request made under subsection (b) of this section shall be accompanied by a release signed by the applicant on a form provided by the Vermont Crime Information Center and a set of the applicant’s fingerprints. The Agency shall pay the fingerprinting fee required pursuant to 20 V.S.A. § 2062 and shall pay any fee required by the FBI associated with a fingerprint-supported criminal record check. The release form to be signed by the applicant shall include a statement informing the applicant of:

(1) the right to challenge the accuracy of the record by appealing to the Vermont Crime Information Center pursuant to rules adopted by the Commissioner of Public Safety; and

(2) the Secretary of Education’s policy regarding maintenance and destruction of records and the applicant’s right to request that the record or notice be maintained for purposes of using it to comply with future criminal record check requests made pursuant to section 256 of this title.

(d) Upon completion of a criminal record check, the Vermont Crime Information Center shall send to the Secretary a notice that no record exists or, if a record exists, a copy of any criminal record. If a copy of a criminal record is received, the Secretary shall forward it to the applicant and shall inform the applicant in writing of:

(1) the right to challenge the accuracy of the record by appealing to the Vermont Crime Information Center pursuant to rules adopted by the Commissioner of Public Safety; and

(2) the Secretary of Education’s policy regarding maintenance and destruction of records and the applicant’s right to request that the record or notice be maintained for purposes of using it to comply with future criminal record check requests made pursuant to section 256 of this title.

(e) The Secretary shall request and obtain information from the Child Protection Registry maintained by the Department for Children and Families and from the Vulnerable Adult Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation Registry maintained by the Department of Disabilities, Aging, and Independent Living (collectively, the Registries) for any applicant for whom a criminal record check is required under subsection (a) of this section. The Departments for Children and Families and of Disabilities, Aging, and Independent Living shall adopt rules in accordance with 3 V.S.A. chapter 25 governing the process for obtaining information from the Registries and for disseminating and maintaining records of that information under this subsection.

(f) An applicant convicted of a sex offense that requires registration pursuant to 13 V.S.A. chapter 167, subchapter 3 shall not be eligible for employment with the Agency.