State Lags on School Background Checks

People with criminal histories have been able to work in area schools for several months because of delays in state-managed background checks of new hires.

Total backlog in Albany right now: Close to 800 cases.

The issue hit home for the Utica City School District, where it was discovered May 19 that an unidentified part-time lunch monitor at Proctor High School failed to clear the fingerprinting check.