8.1 General
8.2 Objectives
8.3 CRC Policy And Procedure

In 1995, the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services (MCSS) issued a policy directive to all of its licensed and funded agencies, including Alta Vista Co-operative Nursery School (AVCNS), regarding the screening of employees and volunteers who provide direct service to or are in direct contact with vulnerable clients (i.e. children). The directive requires that a Criminal Reference Check (CRC) be conducted on school employees and volunteers when these individuals provide direct services to children or vulnerable adults.

A CRC is a generic name that describes a process undertaken by the Regional Police of Ottawa-Carleton to obtain information of a criminal nature about, in this case, teachers and duty parents or persons doing duty on behalf of parents.

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AVCNS owes a quality of care to its children, to its teachers and to its duty persons. This quality of care will be reflected in all school programs, services and activities as well as in its policies and procedures.

Although AVCNS is required to comply with MCSS directives such as that related to CRC's, AVCNS believes that in so doing it continues to strive for the safety of its premises, its programs, and the conduct of its staff, and to ensure that no harm comes to its children, teachers or duty personnel.

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Employee and Duty Person Screening

In order to comply with the directives of MCSS, all teachers, co-op students, volunteer drivers and duty persons must submit to a CRC according to the procedures current when the individual applies for employment or registers their child with an AVCNS program.

A CRC will be required as a condition of employment and must be submitted in the final stages of a job offer. For parents, a consent to a CRC will be included in the AVCNS registration package and must be returned at the time of registration. Failure to meet deadlines will result in a charge to the parent equal to any fee charged by the Ottawa police for a late-submitted CRC.

If there is a delay in the CRC report coming back from the police, and if for some reason the applicant/duty person must start work before if is received, this individual's hiring/acceptance is conditional on the receipt of the report, and is subject to current policies regarding acceptance and exclusion of employees and duty persons.

Confidentiality

It is the objective of AVCNS to assure, to the best of its abilities, the confidentiality of all CRC reports. In accordance with this objective, the following policies have been enacted:

• receiving information: only the Director and President of AVCNS will be privy to information obtained from the CRC.
• keeping information: all CRC responses from the police will be kept under lock and key in a separate file and will be returned to the named teacher/duty persons at the end of the school year or if the teacher or child leaves the program before that date.
• destroying information: confidential information will be destroyed in the presence of the applicants should they not wish to remove it from the school themselves.

Exclusion of Applicants

Failure to submit consent:

• Any applicant for employment who refuses or fails to submit a consent to a CRC will not be employed by AVCNS. A child whose family either fails or refuses to submit a consent to a CRC for at least one person to fulfill duty-parent obligations will not be accepted for registration, until such consent is provided.

Positive CRC:

In the event of a positive CRC, the individual affected may:

1. establish to the satisfaction of the President and Director of the school that all offenses which appear on the person's criminal record in no way relate to: a) crimes against children;
   b) any acts of violence;
   c) substance abuse; or
   d) driving offenses (duty parents are required to be available for driving to CHEO in the event of an emergency; also, parents will be asked to participate in field trips).
   

   The individual will consent to the release of his/her criminal record to the President/Director of the school, to be subject to the same confidentiality as the CRC report.

   The President and Director will determine whether any offenses appearing on the individual's criminal record fall within the categories listed above. If so, a candidate for employment will not be accepted, and a duty-parent will be asked to make alternate duty day arrangements (see below). Failure to make and keep such alternate arrangements may result in discontinuation of enrolment for that individual's child.

   The President and Director will not judge the relative seriousness of the offence(s) or engage in deliberations as to whether the individual is acceptable as an employee/volunteer notwithstanding the offence(s);

2. establish to the satisfaction of the Director and the President that all criminal offenses appearing on the individual's criminal record and which fall into any of the above-mentioned categories, as determined by the President and Director, have been pardoned. Until such time as pardon(s) is/are established, the individual must provide or pay for a suitable substitute for any assigned duty days (see below). The individual will consent to the release of his/her criminal record to the President/Director of the school, to be subject to the same confidentiality as the CRC report;

   and in the case of a duty-person, the affected individual may also:

3. provide a substitute duty person whose CRC is clear; or
4. pay the fee of $25.00 for a substitute to be hired by the school on each assigned duty day;

Amendment of Policy and Procedure

These procedures may be amended at any time with approval of the AVCNS Board of Directors.

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