Earlier this year, the Florida Legislature enacted a requirement
for nonpublic colleges, universities and schools. Effective July 1,
2014, all such institutions are required to inform employees and
students at orientation and on the school's website of the
existence of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement
sexual-predator-registry website and the toll-free telephone number
that gives access to sexual predator and sexual offender public
information.
A disturbing trend we have seen in school communities is the
presence of more sexual offenders or sexual predators who are often
under the radar for most institutions: parents, grandparents, or
individuals on the authorized pickup lists. Many schools do not
perform criminal-background checks on these individuals or even
check the sexual-offender website to determine whether these
individuals should be permitted on the school's campus.
When a sexual offender or predator is discovered in your
community, it can be a difficult issue to deal with. Although it
may be easy enough to restrict the individual's activities at
school, what about the fact that these same individuals are present
at play dates, sleepovers, and other activities away from
school?
To help educate other parents in the community and to place the
burden on parents to be aware of who is supervising their children,
we have long suggested that schools put a statement in their
student handbook advising parents that the school performs
criminal-background checks on its employees and volunteers with
unsupervised access to children, but cannot attest to the
background of the various parents with whom their child may
associate away from school. This policy provides a link to the
appropriate governmental websites where sexual-offender information
can be found.
To meet the requirements of this new Florida law, all nonpublic
schools should now address this issue during yearly employee,
student, and parent orientation. In addition, you should place this
information on your website under your safety guidelines:
Parents, students, and employees should regularly visit the public registry to review it for individuals who may have prior criminal records and sex offenses. Information concerning registered sex offenders and predators in Florida may be obtained by visiting http://www.fdle.state.fl.us, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Sexual Offenders database.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.