Act 15-Clearances

Formerly ACT 153

AMENDED BACKGROUND CHECK REQUIREMENTS

Recent updates to the Pennsylvania Child Protective Services Law require school district employees to obtain criminal background checks (state and federal) and child abuse clearances on a regular basis. The three required clearances are as follows:

  1. PA Criminal Background Check
  2. PA Child Abuse History Clearance
  3. Dept of Education FBI Fingerprinting (federal background check)

Timeline for Background Check Renewal

On July 1, 2015, the Pennsylvania legislature passed Act 15, which amends the Child Protective Services Law and clarifies some changes made through Act 153. The most significant change to the Child Protective Services Law is that employees of school districts must renew their clearances every 60 months (five years), not every 36 months (three years).

The school district has updated the renewal process to comply with the change in law by placing employees into annual renewal cycles based on hire year. For each upcoming cycle, employees will be required to renew by December 31 of the year prior to clearance expiration to ensure compliance for the full 60 month period. A notice will be sent via email to employees with specific information on their upcoming renewal period.

Please refer to the table below for your clearance deadline.

Your Hire Year Your Clearance Renewal Deadline
2013
  • Immediate action required. Deadline is December 31, 2017.
2014
  • No immediate action required. Deadline is now December 31, 2018.
2015
  • No immediate action required. Deadline is now December 31, 2019.

When you have obtained all three clearances, how to submit documents to the school district:

You can upload the documents online, email, or hand-deliver the documents as described below.

  • Online Submission: A dedicated online system is available to collect and track clearances. Scan and save each document as an individual PDF file. To submit your clearances online:
  • Navigate to your School District login page (www.philasd.org/login/) and sign in.
    • On your login page, click the green “Clearances” icon to access the portal where you will upload your clearances.
    • NOTE: The Tracking System will only accept PDF files!
  • Email Submission: Scan and save the documents as individual PDF files. Attach files to email and send to clearances@philasd.org.
  • Hand Delivery of Paper Submission: Clearances may be submitted in person to Employee Records, located at 440 North Broad Street, Philadelphia PA, First Floor, Suite 177 during business hours. Be sure to retain a copy of each document submitted for your records.

How do I get my background checks?

The three required clearances include Child Abuse Clearance, Pennsylvania Criminal History and FBI Fingerprinting. FBI Background must be issued by Department of Education. Please refer to table below for information on how to apply for clearances.

How to Access Fee Summary For Assistance
Child Abuse Clearance https://epatch.pa.gov/home $13
  • Creating an account and submitting your clearance application online will give you immediate access to your results or the status of your results if your results cannot be processed immediately.
  • Results will be posted to your account and will be available to view and save as a PDF document.
  • Be sure to download and save your clearance results.
 1-877-343-0494
Pennsylvania Criminal History https://epatch.pa.gov/home $22.00
  • Results of the PA Criminal History are generally instantaneous. Results will be provided as a PDF document.
  • Remember to save and or print your criminal results.
 1-888-783-7972
FBI Fingerprinting https://uenroll.identogo.com/workflows/1KG6XN/status-check/bio $23.85
  • Click on “Schedule or Manage an Appointment” and enter code 1KG6XN, which indicates that you are being fingerprinted for a job with the School District of Philadelphia.
  • After pre-enrolling, you must schedule an appointment to be fingerprinted at one of the IdentoGO sites: https://www.identogo.com/locations/pennsylvania.
  • Reminder: We are able to accept clearances if they are less than one year old from the date a new employee presents them to the Employee Records department.
  • For your appointment, make sure to bring necessary identification to confirm your identity and a form of payment. IdentoGO locations accept business check, money order, credit card, or authorization code (available only for candidates whose clearances are covered by SDP).
  • The total cost of the clearance is $22.60, and there is a $1.00 processing fee for credit cards.
  1-855-845-7434

Where can I find my clearance reference numbers?

The Child Abuse Clearance certificate number is found in the upper right hand corner of your certificate. See sample Child Abuse Certificate.

The PA Criminal Background Check number is found on your criminal check certificate. The number generally begins with an “R.” See sample PA Criminal Background Check Certificate.

The FBI Fingerprint reference number is the UZSV number found your fingerprint results. . Please note that your UZSV number can also be found on your fingerprint receipt or proof of submission form.