February 10, 2006

An Ingham County Circuit Court judge ruled today that preliminary data of local school employees initially identified with having criminal convictions cannot be provided to the public.

Judge Joyce Draganchuk issued a Preliminary Injunction preventing the Michigan Department of Education from releasing any such data to the media, in response to Freedom of Information requests from a number of news agencies, and a legal petition to the court by the Michigan Education Association to prevent the public release of the information.

School districts received last week lists of their school employees who were matched as having criminal convictions through the state’s criminal history records. After review by the local school districts, a number of “false positive” matches were revealed showing that some employees were mis-identified through the data match.

“Judge Draganchuk agreed with our position that the public isn’t served by receiving inaccurate information,” said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan. “We never intended for this initial information sent to districts to be finalized data.

“We expected that local school districts would be the final, and most direct, filter to identify school employees with criminal convictions; to help correct the state’s criminal history database; and most importantly, to remove from their schools any employee who may pose a danger to their students and staff,” Flanagan said.

When the Department of Education received the database match from the State Police last summer, it immediately began processing license suspensions and revocations of teachers identified with any criminal sexual offenses, or offenses against a child, as listed in state law.

It wasn’t until the new School Safety laws went into effect in January that the Department could inform school districts of all of their employees with a criminal conviction.

The department continues working with school districts to identify any “false positives” on their lists and provide that information through a special website established by the department.

The department also has directed school districts to continue their own process of dealing with employees who have been accurately identified as having “listed offenses” and felonies other than the listed offenses, as required and provided for by state law.