New and Accepted Student Roster Process – Student’s Perspective

History

Since 2002, criminal history background checks have been required for all initial licensures with the Texas Board of Nursing (BON). In the past, students were able to complete this process once he/she had submitted an NCLEX examination application to the BON. The Board also had the Declaratory Order Petition process for those individuals who had something to disclose, but needed a format in which to do so. Individuals who were at least six (6) months away from a potential graduation could use this process to determine their eligibility for licensure.
The BON experienced many individuals who would wait until the last month to disclose concerns, only to find out that they were not eligible for licensure, that their file had to be transferred to Enforcement for further investigation, or at the very least, that their process was delayed. This caused great concern for both the applicant and the nursing program since the student could not be deemed eligible to test, receive the authorization to test (ATT), or practice as a GN/GVN until such time that the review was completed and/or approved. This created anxiety and additional stress for all involved.

The BON recognized that having new students complete the background check process before entering school would be extremely beneficial, and thus instituted the New and Accepted Student Roster process. This process allows both the potential applicant and school to be provided some guidance regarding the student’s eligibility for licensure prior to investing the time, energy, and funds into a nursing program. The following is a breakdown of the process and some related FAQs:

New/Accepted Student Criminal Background Check Process

Step One:
The Texas based nursing program submits the New/Accepted Student Roster to the BON.
Step Two:
BON staff enters the data into our internal fingerprint database. This step is what adds them to the list with MorphoTrust.
Step Three:
BON staff sends an email to the designated contact at the school advising that the roster has been entered into our system.
Step Four:
The school provides the Service Code Form (Formerly known as a Fast Pass) to the students listed on the roster and advises them to schedule their fingerprinting.
Step Five:
The BON receives information from The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding the criminal background check (CBC) results and staff inputs this data within ten business days.
Step Six:
- Effective 9/24/17, the BON no longer issues End of Month Reports: an email was sent to the Deans and Directors of the nursing programs in this regard.