Criminal Records
What Educators Need to Know
As leaders in the community, educators are held to a high standard. It is a violation of the
Licensure Code for educators to violate local, state, and federal laws. Criminal convictions can lead to professional discipline, and sometimes, a loss of licensure. Many criminal offenses must be disclosed on each application for licensure with the State Board of Education. Appendix A of the
CORE Applicant User Manual provides guidance to applicants on answering the legal questions on applications.
Choose from the links below to learn more about how criminal convictions can affect the licensure process:
Rapback
Every educator who holds a license is enrolled in the RAPBACK system. Ohio educators and school bus drivers submit fingerprints through the BCI background check process as a condition of their initial employment. During BCI background checks, the bureau compares applicant fingerprints against a database of criminal fingerprints to determine if there are matches.
After the State Board of Education approves educator license applications, the Office of Professional Conduct enrolls the newly licensed educators into the RAPBACK Service. BCI regularly compares fingerprints in RAPBACK with those associated with new arrests and convictions to identify any subsequent matches.
Last Modified: 11/3/2023 2:54:10 PM