Florida schools struggle with Jessica Lunsford Act

Tallahassee, Florida - School districts across Florida are scrambling to comply with a new law that's designed to make your children safer at school.

The law requires schools to fingerprint and conduct background checks on all construction workers, sports officials and vendors who have access to campuses.

The new rules are mandated by the Jessica Lunsford Act. State lawmakers passed that measure after the 9-year-old Homosassa girl was murdered earlier this year.

School leaders support the tighter regulations. But they say the plan will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and schools may not complete all background checks by the September first deadline.

Some builders want their workers exempted from fingerprinting if construction sites are fenced off from school campuses.

Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press.