Parents who want to eat with their kids in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, North Carolina expected to register as volunteers and get a criminal background check, which comes with daily monitoring for new violations. The reason? Lunch visits provide access to other children as well.
“We want to send a message to parents that their children are protected and we know who they’re dealing with,” said Diane Adams, principal of Providence Spring Elementary, which has almost 1,000 registered volunteers.
She said no one has ever objected. If someone shows up who isn’t registered – say, grandparents visiting from out of town – they’re allowed to eat with the child apart from the rest of the class, Adams said.
There’s no hard-and-fast mandate, but schools are urged to register anyone who comes for lunch on a regular basis, says Samantha Evans, CMS’s director of volunteers.
She said schools have gotten questions from parents who say their children had been given religious material by other kids’ parents or had troubling conversations during lunch. “We need to pay a little more attention to who’s having lunch with our kids,” she said.
An Observer Facebook query got a range of responses from parents.
“I think it’s over the top,” said Carol Sawyer, a former CMS parent who remains active in education issues.
“It’s not over the top; it’s a necessary evil,” said a Park Road Montessori parent who asked not to be named. “If, as a parent, you don’t care enough to fill out a form that takes 30 seconds to complete, you don’t deserve to join your child for lunch.”
On the other hand, “Criminal background checks cost money that we don’t have – remember the layoff and the talk of school closures?” said Katy Ridenouer, who has children at Crestdale Middle and Providence Spring Elementary.
“Let’s keep our kids safe with reasonable measures that keep education money working to educate our children, all of our children.”
Evans said there’s no expense if the person signing up has lived in North Carolina for at least seven years; CMS doesn’t pay for in-state criminal checks. Anyone who has lived out of state during that time is expected to provide prior addresses for a national check. Those have been costing CMS $33 each, but the price will drop to $4 in November because the Raleigh-based consultant handling those checks devised a less expensive approach, Evans said.
All employees and volunteers – CMS has more than 53,400 signed up – are checked against N.C. arrests every day.
That doesn’t mean parents will be summoned to the principal’s office if they get a speeding ticket or a worthless check charge. But Evans said their school access could be restricted if they’re charged with crimes involving violence, drugs or sexual abuse.
Pamela Grundy, a Shamrock Gardens Elementary parent, raised a different concern: Undocumented parents who don’t have Social Security numbers can’t register because the number is required for the background check.
“We’d hate to see an excess of bureaucratic caution keep parents from participating in other school activities.”
