Overview
Bristol Community College (BCC) had not performed Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) background checks on 46 of the 64 Early Childhood Education and Child Care (ECE) Program students who completed teaching practicums during our audit period. Granting students teaching practicums at public schools or daycares without knowing if they have criminal records may pose a risk to children at those facilities.
Authoritative Guidance
The BCC ECE Department’s “Policy and Protocol for Field Experiences” requires that ECE Program students receive CORI background checks by BCC before being granted teaching practicums.
Reasons for Issue
BCC does not have a process to track students in its ECE Program to ensure that they pass CORI background checks performed by the college before they are granted teaching practicums.
Recommendation
BCC should implement a process to track students in the ECE Program to ensure that they pass CORI background checks performed by the college before they are granted teaching practicums.
Auditee’s Response
The College agrees with the Auditor’s recommendation and will implement a tracking system. We agree this is necessary to avoid missing someone in the future and to be sure we are sending the appropriate students in the field. This system will include working with Human Resources to perform the CORI. After we were informed of this finding, we confirmed with each of the schools and daycares that all students did in fact have a CORI conducted at the place of their teaching practicum.
Auditor’s Reply
It appears that BCC is taking measures to address this finding by implementing a tracking system to ensure that all students receive a CORI by BCC before they are assigned to a school or daycare. In addition, although BCC informed us that it recently confirmed that each school or daycare performed a CORI on any student we noted as an exception, we did not receive documentation to support that this was indeed completed.
| Date published: | December 20, 2019 |
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