State law requires holders of permanent certificates and permanent non-tax certificates to complete an updated Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) background check every five years. An updated Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) background check is also required if the certificate holder has lived outside Ohio within the past five years.
The current school year is the five-year anniversary of the implementation of this requirement, which means that these certificate holders need to update their criminal background checks with the Ohio Department of Education if they have not already done so. By law, ODE will inactivate licenses July 1 if no background check or update has been done.
The department requests that these background checks be completed through WebCheck, which allows fingerprints to be sent immediately to BCI for fastest processing. WebCheck sites are posted on the Attorney General’s website. When completing this process, educators need to ensure that the WebCheck operator selects the option for results to be sent to the Ohio Department of Education. A permanent or permanent non-tax certificate may be inactivated if the certificate holder does not comply with these criminal background check requirements. Persons with inactivated educator certificates are not permitted to work in Ohio schools.
Contact the Office of Educator Licensure at educator.licensure@education.ohio.gov or at (614) 466-3693 or toll-free at (877) 644-6338, if you have questions.