LANSING - Last December's passage of the "School Safety Initiative" by Michigan lawmakers had the noble goal of protecting school children from any potentially dangerous contract workers who may have business in school buildings.

The new amendments to state law, enacted Jan. 1, 2006, may indeed help protect the state's school children. But as the law was written, it could also prevent people like construction workers and delivery drivers from making a living by denying them access to school buildings - even if the buildings are empty during the summertime.

"The School Safety Initiative's purpose is to minimize opportunities for certain criminals, particularly registered sex offenders, to contact students at school," said attorney Patrick Higdon, who issued a memorandum to the Michigan School Business Officials (MSBO). But he said the new laws "produce uncertain and unexpected results."

Complaints by the construction industry, delivery services, food preparation and other individuals or contractors who may have reason to go into school buildings prompted the Michigan House and Senate to take another look at the law they passed. Michigan Building Trades Council Secretary-Treasurer Patrick Devlin said the building trades don't have a problem with the spirit of the new law, as long the rules are sensibly laid out.

"If a construction worker does have a criminal past," he said, "why should that prevent that worker from doing his or her job in a school building under new construction, or in a renovated building that's empty, or even in an active building doing renovations or repairs in the summertime, or at night? If there's no contact with kids, what's the problem?"

At this time, a number of groups inside and outside of the educational community think the new rules were poorly written, and need fixing. The state House and Senate are attempting to do just that.

The School Safety Initiative was a response to a series of Detroit News articles last year which reported that more than 200 school employees with criminal records were working in state schools. Of those, only 44 had personnel records that indicated information from their criminal past. Five of those 200 were sex offenders.

Under the new law, school districts are required to conduct criminal checks for all new full- and part-time school employees and any individuals assigned to "regularly and continuously work under contract" in any school," Higdon wrote. The current legislation only requires the checks upon initial employment.

In addition, the law requires individuals who have been found guilty of a felony, sex offense less than a felony, and other misdemeanor offenses like crimes against minors, or even breaking and entering, to report that information to the school district. Failure to make such a report is itself a crime and could result in discharge.

The law allows a school district's board of education and superintendent to sign off on the hiring of such an individual.

An informational meeting by the school board officials brought up a number of requirements raised by the new state law that were adopted late last year that could affect building trades workers. "The legislation moved rapidly, and was not written very well," said a memo by Sandra Miller (president of the Greater Michigan Plumbing and Mechanical Contractors) and Walt Miner (Executive Director of the Michigan Mechanical Contractors Association).

"One thing is definite," they wrote, "contractors who are currently bidding school work are having included in their bid documents an affidavit or specification that they (the contractor) must verify that everyone they are putting on their project has cleared the fingerprinting process and they have clear criminal histories. This is not possible under the current rules and regulations."

With such a broadly worded law, legal opinions on how to apply it vary among school districts. For instance, one definition open to interpretation is that criminal background checks are required for any individuals assigned to "regularly and continuously work under contract" in any school. Does that apply to construction workers?

There are a number of other problems with the School Safety Initiative. Miller and Miner said that school district employees are currently fingerprinted by the Michigan State Police, who check their record for a criminal history. Contractors do not have access to that information for their employees, and without that knowledge, have no way of knowing not to send such an employee on a school job.

In addition, there is no definition for a "school" building. Is it OK for convicted workers to toil in school administrative offices or bus garages?

Also, there are numerous questions about the accuracy of the information. An attorney for 75 school districts who worked on criminal checks said only one district's information was correct. One person produced state data that showed he was convicted of a crime before he was born, information by Miller and Miner said.

Those arguments seems to have sunk in. Earlier this month, the Michigan Senate passed another bill intended to repair some of those problems. The Senate legislation would also exempt construction workers from some of the onerous portions of the legislation adopted last year. However, some state House members had some problems with the new amendments, and hadn't resolved them at the time we went to press.

"Many members of the Michigan legislature understand that changes have to be made and this is on the front burner," Miller and Miner wrote.