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Bush: Let's simplify checks for schools

A law that requires criminal background checks for anyone working at a school has caused headaches that the governor and schools want to fix.

By JONI JAMES
Published September 10, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush said he wants to make it easier and cheaper for businesses to comply with a new Florida law requiring school vendors to pass criminal background checks, suggesting relief may come as early as next month.

It has been a little more than a week since the Jessica Lunsford Act went into effect, but one provision already is snarled in red tape.

Companies doing work on school grounds during the day must submit employees to fingerprinting and background checks. But since each school district has its own program, companies that work across regions have to pay for the checks over and over. What's more, most of the state's 67 school districts have huge backlogs in background check requests.

The result is a mixed bag of enforcement for a law aimed at keeping sexual offenders from children. Some schools make unchecked vendors do their work accompanied by a school employee, in others, companies have adjusted their schedules so they're on campus when the students aren't. And other school districts, including Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, simply aren't being strict about following the law saying they need more time.

"The intent is good," Bush told reporters this week. "But now that we've learned what some of the consequences and limitations are, maybe there is a way to achieve the intent at a lower business cost."

Bush stopped short of embracing a fix proposed by a handful of high-profile builder groups and the Florida School Boards Association that is expected to be presented Thursday to a House education committee.

They're pushing for it to be considered in October, when state lawmakers are expected to return to Tallahassee for a special session on Medicaid.

The groups, including Associated Builders and Contractors and Association of General Contractors, want lawmakers to drop the demand for fingerprinting and a state and federal background check, which cost between $60 and $90 apiece.

In its place, they propose requiring their employees be checked against state and federal sexual offender databases, which they can access free through the Internet.

Many school officials also concur.

"It seems to me that is what the Jessica Lunsford Act was trying to do, address sex offenders," said Kendra Goodman, purchasing agent for Pasco County Schools, which has processed 1,200 background checks since Aug. 1. Only two checks have led to campus bans so far: one applicant had a past drug conviction; the other a several-year-old conviction for assault on a police officer.

Other school districts had processed far fewer background checks so far. Pinellas had fully processed only 320 vendors or their employees this week; Hillsborough was working with 75 vendors and an unknown number of their employees so far.

But key lawmakers, including Senate sponsor Nancy Argenziano, R-Crystal River, have said they are reluctant to depart significantly from the law's original requirement.

And Bush suggested he would be inclined to a less dramatic fix that would require the same level of scrutiny but would keep businesses from having to pay for a background check more than once, possibly by forcing statewide coordination between school districts.

If the state doesn't fix the plan, Bush said it will eventually cost taxpayers more. "Because all that stuff is passed on," Bush said. "School districts will end up paying for all this at some point" in future contracts.

Indeed, cost has been the recurring complaint among businesses large and small as the law applies to everyone from construction workers renovating the gymnasium to the salesman hawking class rings.

The law is most burdensome for businesses that work with multiple school districts. While the law allows school districts to share information from background checks, no cross-state agreement for sharing information exists. That means contractors in most cases have to pay for a background check for each employee in each school district.

For small businesses like Bits 'N Pieces Puppet Theater in Tampa, it's a huge complication. The nonprofit group, which performs classic children's stories using 9-foot puppets and provides teaching guides geared toward Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, has contracts with 10 school districts.

"Like a lot of my colleagues I'm just looking to see what comes of it," said Jerry Bickel, founder of the 30-year-old theater, who so far has paid for background checks in only one county. "I understand the sentiment behind it, but there has to be an easier way."

Staff writers Eddy Ramirez and Donna Winchester contributed to this report. Joni James can be reached at jjames@sptimes.com or 850 224-7263.

[Last modified September 10, 2005, 01:22:18]