The
Jessica Lunsford Act was passed in
2005. Among other things, the Act
required fingerprinting and background
screening of any contractor who are
permitted access on school grounds when
students are present. The law had
previously required this level of
screening only with respect to
contractor personnel who had direct
contact with students.
Businesses that engage in
work on school property (construction,
utilities, materials suppliers, delivery
services, etc.) soon discovered a number
of practical issues created by this
background screening requirement,
including: (a) varying interpretations
from school board to school board about
what constitutes an offense involving
?moral turpitude? that would exclude a
worker from school premises; (b) widely
varying costs for background checks; and
(c) the potential need for duplicative
checks as workers move from one school
district to another.
SB 988, which recently
passed the FL Legislature, will resolve
many of these issues, as follows:
-
Instead of the vague
standard, the bill sets forth a
specific list of violent or sexual
crimes that would exclude a
contractor employee from working on
school grounds when students are
present.
-
Exempts from
fingerprinting and background
screening any contractor personnel
who are under the direct supervision
of a person who has complied with
the fingerprinting and background
screening requirements.
-
Exempts from
fingerprinting and background
screening: (a) a contractor working
at a site fenced off from the rest
of the school grounds; and (b) a
contractor who makes brief visits to
school grounds to provide pick-up or
delivery services.
-
For screened
contactor employees, the fee for the
background check could be no more
than 30% in excess of the actual
cost of the FDLE/FBI criminal
history check. The results of the
initial criminal history check must
be made available to all school
districts via a secure FDLE
website. If informed of an
individuals prior screening, a
school district would have to rely
upon the information provided
through the FDLE website, at no
charge to the contractor or
employee.
(information taken from
www.flsenate.gov)
