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Schools

Lunsford Act compliance to be eased

A statewide database is planned to simplify costly school vendor screenings. Legislative leaders plan more fixes in the spring.

By JONI JAMES
Published September 16, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - Vendors working in multiple Florida public school districts will soon be able to pay for a single criminal background check for each employee under a plan unveiled Thursday by state legislative leaders.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, at the request of House Speaker Allen Bense, R-Panama City, and Senate President Tom Lee, R-Valrico,said by Sept. 30 it will have a statewide database of criminal background information provided to any school district in the state concerning a vendor.

Such a system, Bense and Lee said, should answer at least some of the complaints they have received from businesses about the costly implementation of a little-noticed provision of the Jessica Lunsford Act. Gov. Jeb Bush also praised the plan.

Aimed at keeping closer tabs on sexual offenders, the Jessica Lunsford Act requires all school vendors and their employees by Sept. 1 to provide fingerprints and pass state and federal background checks if they work at schools while children are present.

But a lack of coordination among the state's 67 districts meant many vendors faced spending $60 to $90 in each school district for each employee to comply with the law, which took effect Sept. 1.

School districts also have struggled to implement the law, leading to spotty enforcement statewide.

School board officials praised the FDLE plan. "It's great," said Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association, which has asked state lawmakers to consider the issue in a special session this fall. "It's something we've been trying to get done ever since the bill passed."

Other complaints about the law, however, will wait until the 2006 legislative session that starts in March, Bense and Lee said. Among the complaints: The law provides no clear standard as to what should disqualify a vendor from working on school grounds when children are present.

Some school districts, for example, have banned construction workers or others with criminal pasts unrelated to sexual offenses.

Sponsors of the Lunsford Act told a House committee Thursday that they want a statewide standard for crimes that would trigger a ban.

But the House and Senate sponsors also warned they are unwilling to change the fundamental requirement that vendors pass background checks. Business groups and the school boards association have sought to have workers checked against state and federal sexual offender databases, information that is free on the Internet.

"We're not going to back off of that," Sen. Nancy Argenziano, R-Dunnellon, told the House PreK-12 Committee. "You can count on that."

Joni James can be reached at 850 224-7263 or jjames@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 16, 2005, 01:35:22]