NEW SCHOOL SAFETY ZONE LEGISLATION
A series of laws went into effect in Michigan on January 1, 2006, establishing “School Safety Zones.” These “School Safety Zones” prohibit individuals from being within 1000 feet of school property if they have been convicted of a “listed offense.” The “listed offenses” include: accosting a child for immoral purposes, child sexual abuse, involvement in sexually explicit material involving children, Criminal Sexual Conduct, Pandering, carrying away a child under the age of 14, and various other sexual crimes and crimes against children. In an effort to prevent certain criminals and sexual predators from entering the “School Safety Zones,” Michigan Public Acts 129-131 & 138 require local school boards to have criminal history and records checked for various employees and workers. Any individual found to have been convicted of a “listed offense” will be prohibited from working within the “School Safety Zone.”
The “School Safety Zones” laws cover Michigan school district employees and persons “assigned to regularly and continuously work under contract in any of [Michigan] schools.” MCLA §380.1230g. Thus, any person who works full-time or part-time for a school district or works regularly and continuously under a contract is required to give written consent for both a criminal history check conducted by the Michigan State Police and a criminal records check run through the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Covered individuals must also submit their fingerprints to the Michigan State Police for the purposes of the criminal records check.
The “School Safety Zone” laws were written without a definitions section. Thus, the plain meaning of the words will determine how the laws are to be interpreted. The laws state that persons working “regularly and continuously” under contract in any school are required to undergo criminal history and records checks. This definition would appear to cover any contractor who both contracts directly with a school district, and has onsite personnel working or overseeing work at a school. One should also note that these laws apply to public and private schools.
The statutory language found in the “School Safety Zone” laws does not seem broad enough to cover subcontractors and suppliers. Subcontractors and suppliers generally will not have contracted with the school district, and more importantly, the subcontractors do not work regularly and continuously at the project site. Yet, for contractors, your employees will be on site “regularly and continuously.” Unlike the subcontractor who may perform one task and then leave for another job, the contractor’s employees will be on hand throughout the duration of the project. Thus, it is important for contractors to ensure that their employees are in compliance with the “School Safety Zone” laws
One of the most difficult things for the schools in terms of complying with the “School Safety Zones” laws is that no funding was provided for the schools to pay the expense of performing the criminal history and records checks. The laws state that it is the local school board’s responsibility to have the criminal background and history checks done, but the schools must find the resources necessary to be in compliance on their own. Since each school has many employees the costs of these criminal background checks adds up quickly. Due to the burdensome nature of paying for these checks, our firm suggests that any contractor who works on school projects, or would like to work on school projects, have all of their employees that work onsite at the schools undergo the required background checks at the company’s expense. Having the required criminal records checks performed on these employees would be beneficial to your company by allowing you to check your employee’s criminal histories and it would be a wonderful selling point with the schools. If your business’ employees have already been checked by the Michigan State Police and FBI, your company can sell itself to the schools as already being compliant with the “School Safety Zone” laws.
The lawyers at Deneweth, Dugan & Parfitt, P.C. are familiar with the requirements of Michigan’s “School Safety Zone” laws and can answer any questions you may have regarding this new legislation. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this law, please feel free to contact us at (248)290-0400.
