Kentucky

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Kentucky school systems now have access to a new process that will greatly reduce the time required to receive the results of criminal background checks for school personnel and volunteers. School systems that use AOCFastCheck will receive their reports in days instead of weeks.

The Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts announced today that its new automated online record-check system, AOCFastCheck, is up and running in time for the start of the 2009 school year. Schools can register to use the new process immediately.

The AOC provides free criminal history checks to public and private school systems statewide.

?AOCFastCheck is a huge leap forward in our ability to meet the demand for criminal background checks that schools require each year,? said Jason Cloyd, manager of the AOC Division of Records and Statistics. ?Last year we received more than 200,000 record requests between mid-August and late October. It was a tremendous challenge to respond in a timely manner given the limitations of our manual system.?

School systems that establish an account on a secure server hosted by the AOC can submit requests whenever they like and receive an e-mail notification when the results are available through their online account. They log onto the same account to submit requests, receive results and track the progress of requests and results.

The manual system will still be available for schools that do not elect to use AOCFastCheck. Effective Aug. 17, all record requests submitted by mail or e-mail will be returned by mail. This is a change from the previous process in which requests made by mail or e-mail were returned by e-mail. Electronic responses will be available only through AOCFastCheck as of Aug. 17.

The AOC Records staff is available to help clients establish accounts and answer questions about how to use AOCFastCheck. School systems that need assistance to set up an account can contact the AOC at publicmenuaccess@kycourts.net or by calling the AOC Records Unit at 800-928-6381 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.