The Jessica Lunsford Act, effective September 1, 2005, will affect all artists who have contracts with school districts.  The law requires a Level 2 Background Screening (this includes fingerprinting) to be administered to any person who will be on school grounds.

Although counties are encouraged to recognize screenings done in other counties, there is no requirement for them to do so. As a result, multiple screenings may need to be done if you are performing in multiple counties. The costs for these screenings may be borne by the school or the vendor and will require extra trips made to the county.

This is a new law and school districts are each working out their own methods of implementation. Below is the link to the Department of Education’s website where you may read a Technical Assistance Paper prepared by DOE for the school districts.

We recognize the difficulty this presents to our artists.

The DOE link:
http://www.fldoe.org/news/2005/2005_08_19-2.asp

Thank you and best wishes with your upcoming seasons.

For update information regarding the Jessica Lunsford act and The Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Program, "Criminal History Sharing Among School Districts," please visit the FDLE webpage devoted to the Florida Shared School Results System: http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/alerts/jla_schools.html.