A representative from the police department and an attorney will be at the next Wellesley School Committee meeting to give the public a better understanding of Criminal Offender Records Information (CORI) checks and how the law applies to what information can be made public or used as a reason to hire or dismiss an employee.

The discussion comes as the committee studies other town’s policies regarding CORI checks in the wake of the discovery in October that a Middle School custodian charged with stealing computers and jewelry from the building had a criminal record.

School Committee Vice-Chairman Diane Campbell said the committee will vote in January on a new policy which could include changes in how CORI checks are used or in the frequency with which they are conducted on employees already working in the system.

The current policy is that a CORI check is done on anyone who may have unsupervised access to students, including not only job applicants but parents wishing to volunteer in classrooms. The current policy also requires a recheck of employees’ backgrounds every three years.

A criminal record does not necessarily prevent an applicant from being hired, although the relevance and nature of the charges, time since conviction and specific circumstances of the incidents are taken into consideration, according to Superintendent Bella T. Wong.

Campbell said there are specific laws about what can and can not be shared with the public regarding what is discovered in a CORI check, which Deputy Police Chief William Brooks or another member of the Wellesley Police Force will explain at the meeting on Dec. 20.

Keith Muntyan, the town’s labor counsel, or another attorney, will also be at the meeting to explain how the law pertains to the use of information found within a criminal background check.

School Superintendent Bella T. Wong has refused to comment specifically about the hiring of night custodian Gino Lister who began working at the middle school last spring and was charged two months ago with larceny over $250 and receiving stolen property after an investigation that traced computers stolen from the middle school back to him, according to court records.

Documents in Framingham District Court also show Lister had been before a judge at least twice over the past 12 years when he pleaded guilty to assault and battery and later to breaking and entering in a case that was continued for a year without a finding.

Lister’s wife also told police he was in an outpatient drug treatment program for an addiction to opiates at the time of his arrest by Wellesley Police, according to arrest records filed in Dedham District Court.