Standard 4.A-1 of the ARKANSAS DIVISION OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION RULES GOVERNING STANDARDS FOR ACCREDITATION OF ARKANSAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS requires that each public school district shall not employ personnel, whether licensed or non-licensed, who have not successfully completed background checks in accordance with the laws of the State of Arkansas and the rules of the Division.  This includes teachers contracted through third party digital providers.  The district and provider must coordinate to provide accurate and timely data regarding teachers providing instruction via digital courses.  

Digital Learning Provider Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the digital learning provider to ensure that teachers employed by the provider have a complete up-to-date (every 5 years) approved background check and current legal name  in the Arkansas Educator Licensure System (AELS).   Annually, no later than September 15th, the provider will share a list of its teachers that are assigned to the district with their identified point of contact in the district.  The district must be notified any time the information changes throughout the year.  The list of digital learning teachers will contain the following: 

1) The digital learning teacher’s legal name as shown in AELS and

2) Case ID as it exists in AELS

Public School District Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the public school district to enter the legal name and accurate Case ID of the digital learning teacher into the master schedule in eSchool. Case IDs are issued once the background check is initiated. All teachers not currently teaching a course in the district should be made inactive in eSchool.

The following information must be correct for each course the digital learning teacher is teaching in the Course SIS data screen:

1. Digital Learning checkbox 

2. Digital Learning Type

3. Digital Learning Provider

4. Digital Delivery