128th MAINE LEGISLATURE
LD 1286 LR 1065(02)
An Act To Require Background Checks for All School Employees
Fiscal Note for Bill as Amended by Committee Amendment " "
Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
Fiscal Note Required: Yes
             
Fiscal Note
State Mandate - Funded
FY 2017-18 FY 2018-19 Projections  FY 2019-20 Projections  FY 2020-21
Net Cost (Savings)
General Fund $13,244 $13,508 $13,779 $14,054
Appropriations/Allocations
General Fund $13,244 $13,508 $13,779 $14,054
State Mandates
Required Activity Unit Affected Local Cost
Requires local school administrative units to submit the names of all employees subject to certification, approval or authorization and indicate the date on which the person most recently commenced employment with the school administrative unit.  School $13,244
The required local activities in this bill may represent a state mandate pursuant to the Constitution of Maine. If the bill does require a local unit of government to expand or modify its activities so as to necessitate additional expenditures from local revenue, the state mandate provisions of the Constitution of Maine require either: (1) General Fund appropriations be provided to fund at least 90% of any additional necessitated local costs of the mandate; or (2) a Mandate Preamble be added to the bill and two-thirds of the members of each House vote to exempt the mandate from the funding requirement. If the bill does represent a state mandate and neither one of these actions occurs, the local units of government will not be required to implement the mandated activities.
Fiscal Detail and Notes
This bill includes ongoing General Fund appropriations of $13,244 in fiscal year 2017-18 and $13,508 in fiscal year 2018-19 to the Learning Systems program within the Department of Education to fund 90% of the cost to local school administrative units to submit the names of all employees subject to certification, approval or authorization along with the date that each employee began working for the SAU.  These estimates assume that the central office within each SAU will be responsible for compiling the data and submitting the report and that the data is up-to-date. 
Additional costs to the Department of Education to determine if the employees whose names were submitted by the local school administrative unit have complied with all applicable criminal history record check and fingerprinting requirements and to notify the school administrative units if the employee failed to comply can be absorbed within existing budgeted resources.