A new state law requires school districts to be notified if one of their students is arrested for or convicted of certain crimes. And, if that student transfers to another district, the receiving district must be notified as well.
House Bill 1551, sponsored by state Rep. Jon Eubanks, R-Paris, passed through the Legislature with only four votes against it during this year's session. It became Act 647, which takes effect this summer.
The votes
Arkansas legislators approved House Bill 1551, now Act 647, in March by votes of 81-4 in the House of Representatives and 35-0 in the Senate.
Source: Staff report
Debbie Jones, superintendent of the Bentonville School District, pushed for the bill out of concern districts weren't getting sufficient information on the background of students transferring into their schools.
"That transfer piece is really critical because, many times, a kid may commit an offense in their local community, then move and hope that doesn't follow them," Jones said. "This law is intended to be a very responsive, real-time communications plan that I think will benefit security within all the schools."
Jones brought up the issue during a legislative forum in Bentonville in January, about two weeks into the legislative session that ended this month.
Proper communication between law enforcement agencies and schools is key to minimizing the potential for violent acts at school, as it alerts school officials to provide counseling or extra services a particular student might need, Jones said.
The issue is of particular concern to Northwest Arkansas because new students are moving into the region all the time, she said. Benton and Washington counties added about 10,285 people in 2018, an average of 28 people per day, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Previously, Arkansas districts learned a student's criminal history only if the juvenile in one of their schools had been found guilty of an offense for which he could have been charged as an adult or for unlawful possession of a handgun. There was no requirement to inform other districts of those offenses should that student transfer.
The new law requires prosecutors to notify a district when a juvenile student has been convicted of an offense involving a deadly weapon, kidnapping, battery in the first degree, sexual indecency with a child, sexual assault or unlawful possession of a gun.
The prosecutor is supposed to inform the new district as well if the student transfers. The law also mandates agencies arresting a juvenile on one of those charges verbally notify the superintendent of the student's district within 24 hours.
Any information passed on about a juvenile to the district superintendent must be kept confidential, though it may be shared with the school principal, the student resource officer and any other school official "with a legitimate educational interest" in the student, according to the law.
"The arrest information shall be used by the school only for the limited purpose of obtaining services for the minor or to ensure school safety," the law states.
Jim Rollins, superintendent of Springdale schools, said school officials need to know if children have issues that could cause them to be a danger to themselves or to others, and communication between schools and law enforcement agencies is important.
"We need to work together and use all the resources that we have to take care of all of the kids," Rollins said.
At least some prosecutors expressed concern about the additional responsibilities the law imposes on them, particularly as it relates to students transferring. Prosecutors don't always know when a student changes schools, said Nathan Smith, Benton County's prosecutor.
"Anything like that, that is outside the direct authority and discretion a prosecutor has at his or her fingertips, is going to be a difficult thing to implement," Smith said.
Matt Durrett, Washington County's prosecutor, agreed.
"Unless we're told a student is transferring, we're not going to know," he said. "It complicates things for us."
Hayes Minor, Rogers police chief, said he likes the new law.
"To me, it's common sense," Minor said. "If you've got a juvenile charged with one of those crimes, it makes sense to notify the school district that's going to be responsible for that child and others around them for five days a week."
Minor added he's not concerned about the impact it will have on his department as far as work load, because the number of juveniles Rogers arrests for those specific crimes is pretty low -- probably less than a dozen per year, he estimated.
Matt Burgess, an attorney for Walmart and a Bentonville School Board member, wrote a paper in law school about the Missouri Safe Schools Act. His paper recounted a 1995 incident at a high school just outside St. Louis, where a 15-year-old girl was raped and murdered by a male student in a restroom during the school day.
The boy, who was also 15, had been admitted to the school one day before the murder. He'd had behavioral issues at his previous school officials at his new school didn't know about.
One year later, Missouri's governor signed the Safe Schools Act, which allowed districts to share information concerning a student's discipline records and gave administrators the right to inform staff members of the contents of the student's file.
Burgess said he'd like to see Arkansas law encourage the kind of communication between districts the Missouri law does.
"I would suggest the more communications that districts have, intrastate and interstate, the safer students will be," he said.
NW News on 04/21/2019