That was the point of this blog—most of the states don’t and won’t tell them beforehand whether or not they’re going to be denied. They’re not going to get an answer, and that’s what they’ll be told when they call the Board. It’s all we can do to deal with the ones who actually do apply.

One person does not have say-so; so it isn’t like the student can call and get an answer. Applicants with criminal records here are reviewed by a committee of three board members and the board’s attorney, and the committee makes a recommendation to the full board of whether or not to deny the license. The full Board then discusses it, and they can choose to accept or refuse our recommendation, so it is a slow process. That’s a standard procedure with most state massage boards.

I taught massage at a vocational college for a while, and there was a big problem with not only students with criminal backgrounds that included violence but untreated mental illness and learning disabilities. Admission policy at the school was basically “get them in”. They found that about a quarter of the students who enrolled and completed the Criminal Justice program were not eligible to work in their field because of their criminal records.

When I have complained about it to the higher ups, their finger points constantly to the federal student loan program. We are not allowed to discriminate if we are taking federal money. But eliminating this connection would certainly put many schools under. It is a quagmire, isn’t it?

At our college, ALL of our healthcare programs require students to have a criminal background check and drug screen prior to the first day of class because our students are required to participate in external clinical components. Thank Goodness for that!

Our safeguard is this:
The healthcare organizations, where our students participate in their clinical rotation, DO require the CBC’s and drug screens.

Yes, it lets the community college system off the hook, so to speak, while still controlling, to a certain degree, the quality of students that enter our educational gates. AND….the external healthcare facilities are the ones that make the call of which students to REJECT based on criminal background & drug checks.

The reports go directly to a database that is accessed by the clinical organizations & the students themselves can access their own results.

NOW, if the student is rejected by the clinical organization, they cannot complete their classes do to a “failure to progress” as clinical is a required component of their class.

I do tell our students with suspicious backgrounds that the “powers that be” still have the ability to deny licensure for backgrounds that are indeed questionable.

Our problem has been that sometimes the hospitals let someone slip thru their fingers when checking the reports. If the clinical agencies do not catch the error, we cannot drop them from the class.

Even with this safeguard, some simply slip thru the cracks,. Some students think we are crazy when alerting them to the harsh realization that they, in reality, may never be able to get a license in ANY healthcare profession. GO FIGURE….
Keep up the good work, Laura, you are one in a million….