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Alabama school system requires background check to visit your child during lunch
This summer the Pelham Board of Education expanded its background check policy, required for school volunteers, to include parents and grandparents who visit students during lunch.
Nicole Knight, communications manager for Pelham City Schools, said the expansion of the policy wasn't prompted by any particular incident.
"This school year, the expansion of the background check for lunch visitors came about because Pelham schools have an 'open door' policy that allows visitors during lunch times," she said in an email to AL.com. "We typically have dozens of visitors in our schools on any given day. Our goal is to do our best to ensure the visitors in our schools are safe to be around our students and staff at all times, including lunch.
Pelham City Schools Superintendent Scott Coefield said the school board is reviewing the policy after receiving questions from parents and community members. He said the board will clarify what criminal offenses will disqualify a parent or relative from visiting a student at school.
Coefield said the background check is targeting violent offenders, drug traffickers and child pornographers.
He also said most schools require background, some even for lunch visitors. That happens when schools swipe parents' driver licenses when they sign at the front office, Coefield said.
Shenna Sheffield, a parent of three children in Pelham schools, said the policy simply doesn't make sense.
"I am thinking about my family that lives out of town," she said. "If they are here for just a day or two, they will miss the opportunity to sit down with their grandchildren for a 30 minute lunch."
Sheffield doesn't understand why the policy applies lunch but not to school programs and other school-related activities. She said she previously underwent a background check in order to go with her daughter on a school field trip.
Parents already have to show identification when visiting their children at school, Sheffield said. She questions why that isn't enough.
Pelham schools have a large Hispanic population, and Sheffield said she often sees Hispanic parents in the schools with their children. She suspects the school board is trying to keep those parents, who may not speak English or may be undocumented, out of the schools, she said.
Coefield said the expanded policy is not intended to keep Hispanic parents or relatives out of the schools. He said if any parents or relatives happen to be undocumented and don't have a social security number, they can still undergo a background check.
He said 29 percent of the student population is Hispanic.
Coefield also said school principals do have the ability to make
Kenneth Paschal, who lives in Pelham and is president of the Alabama Family Rights Association, is speaking out against the policy. He doesn't have a child who attends Pelham City Schools.
"An automatic background check without evidence of illegal activity or wrongdoing creates a poor precedent for students' and parents' privacy," he said in a letter to school board members. "The policy requires parents to pay money to spend time with their child. Furthermore, the requirement seems to be an unethical intrusion propagated by fear and hidden under the guise of benefits for the child."
Knight said some parents and community members asked questions about the policy at the school board's September meeting, which has prompted further discussion from the board.
"We intend to diligently follow through on our commitment to answer the questions posed to us and consider all options that effectively provide safe schools for our students," she said.
Paschal said board members couldn't answer many questions from parents, such as what the board is looking for in background checks. If the board is just looking for convicted sex offenders, then they could run the parent roster against the sex offender database, he said.
Pelham City Schools has required a criminal background check for all parents or other volunteers who accompany field trips and participate in school day activities since 2014. The policy was recently expanded to include parents or others visiting for lunch.
A third-party screening company conducts the background check online. The cost is $15.
Paschal said low-income families may not be able to afford the $15 fee and could hinder parents' ability to be able to spend time with their children.
Coefield said the school board is checking with other vendors in an attempt to find a cheaper option for parents.
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