{"id":33510,"date":"2023-02-22T09:14:44","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T15:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=33510"},"modified":"2023-02-22T09:14:44","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T15:14:44","slug":"bill-would-bar-inquiries-into-college-applicants-criminal-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=33510","title":{"rendered":"Bill would bar inquiries into college applicants\u2019 criminal history"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nebraska\u2019s public higher education institutions could not ask about a person\u2019s criminal background when they apply for admission under a bill heard Feb. 21 by the Education Committee.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. John Fredrickson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Under LB222, introduced by Omaha Sen. John Fredrickson, a public college or university could not inquire about a person\u2019s criminal history or juvenile court record as part of its application and admission process except as required by state and federal law.<\/p>\n

Fredrickson said asking about a person\u2019s criminal history during the college admission process deters formerly incarcerated people from applying, which can prevent them from gaining the education and job training they need to reintegrate into society.<\/p>\n

\u201cApproximately 95 percent of state prisoners will be released from prison at some point,\u201d he said, \u201cso we need to ensure opportunities are available for them to get the education they need to contribute to our workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fredrickson brought an amendment to the hearing that he said is intended to address concerns raised by the University of Nebraska.<\/p>\n

He said the amendment would clarify that LB222 would not apply to an institution\u2019s inquiries into criminal history that occur subsequent to admission as part of a professional licensure process or an academically required clinical placement.<\/p>\n

Courtney Wittstruck testified in support of the measure on behalf of the Nebraska Community College Association. She said it would provide greater access to higher education for more Nebraskans while still allowing postsecondary institutions to ask about a person\u2019s criminal history when they apply for on-campus housing or particular academic programs, such as early childhood education.
\nAlso in support was Jasmine Harris of RISE, a nonprofit that offers rehabilitation programs in several Nebraska prisons.<\/p>\n

Harris said many RISE participants take college courses offered by Metropolitan Community College and the University of Nebraska at Omaha while in prison. Such participation in higher education programs by incarcerated people has been shown to reduce recidivism by 48 percent, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLB222 will offer people like our [participants] coming out of incarceration the opportunity to continue their higher education aspirations without having to bear the guilt and shame of checking a box on an admissions application,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

Rose Godinez testified in support of the bill on behalf of the ACLU of Nebraska. Research shows that asking about an applicant\u2019s criminal history during college admission does nothing to enhance public safety but does deter individuals from applying, she said.<\/p>\n

No one testified in opposition to LB222 and the committee took no immediate action on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nebraska\u2019s public higher education institutions could not ask about a person\u2019s criminal background when they apply for admission under a bill heard Feb. 21 by the Education Committee. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33508,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[279],"class_list":["post-33510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-sen-john-fredrickson"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/LB222Fredrickson2-21-23a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33510"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33512,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33510\/revisions\/33512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}