With school elections firmly behind us, Boards of Education are now looking forward to their January re-organization meetings and, in some cases, new Board members taking office. But as everyone knows, December can be a hectic rush, with more and more competing demands for our increasingly limited time and attention. As a result, sometimes the requirements of N.J.S.A. 18A:12-1.2(a), that every newly elected or appointed member of a Board of Education must complete a criminal history background investigation “within 30 days of election or appointment,” can be overlooked in all the holiday hubbub.
On August 11, 2014, the New Jersey Opportunity to Compete Act, aka “Ban the Box,” was signed into law prohibiting most employers from inquiring about an applicant’s criminal background history during the initial hiring process.