Do I need a local police background check?

I’ve been teaching at buxibans here for well over a decade. I’ve had an APRC for most of that time.

I’ve never had any problems until now. The school I am thinking of working for says that I am required to get a local police background check. I’ve never been asked for this by any other school before. They claim it’s a requirement no matter where I work.

I can understand this IF I needed an ARC or work permit, but I already have an open work permit and APRC.

Anyone know the actual government requirements or laws on this matter?

Can be simply school policy. Maybe they don’t want to hire people with a record? If you don’t have one, you can get it pretty easily and very cheap.

It’s a requirement now. Schools have to ensure all their teachers do it. It’s been this way since the big molestation case a year or two ago. Getting it done is painless, just means going down to the FA station, on Zhonghua Road if you’re in Taipei.

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Including local teachers. just to make it clear.

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So every single year, or every time I change jobs I have to go through this?

I was able to get a criminal background check from my local police station in Taoyuan. I can’t remember how much it cost - but it was somewhere around 180NT.

Well, of course. How else would the rule change work?

EDIT: You don’t have to do it every single year in the same job.

“How else would the rule change work?”

You’re asking the wrong person. I am not under any illusion that the rule change “works.”

I seriously doubt that many sexual assaults are even reported in this country, and I also doubt that of the ones that are reported, many are brought to justice. I would wager that the Taiwanese teacher that was blamed for the suicide of the author years ago would have sailed easily past any police background checks.

If any long term expats holding APRC’s were convicted of major crimes, I doubt they’d still have their APRC’s. So for me, the rule change doesn’t make a lot of sense.

But either way, thanks everyone for clarifying this. I won’t be surprised now when some schools ask for this.

Very little “works” 100%. However, measures taken to protect children are important. Whether you are the wrong person to ask that question is irrelevant.

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Do they only want Taiwanese records? Anything outside of Taiwan doesn’t show up on it.

I mean someone could have been a child molester in the states…

You missed the big discussion when the amendment to the Supplementary Education Act was proposed.

Short answer:

If the faculty or staff member to be hired or employed is a foreign national, when initially applying for the work permit for the first time, the center shall also attach a certificate of good conduct certificate issued by the country of issuance of the foreign national’s passport.

Yes, there are aspects of this that haven’t been thought through very well. Search for previous threads for more information.