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Here is a link to the law: http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText12/HouseText12/H7077.pdf

"16-2-18.1. Criminal records review. -- (a) Any person seeking employment with a private school or public school department who has not previously been employed by a private school or public school department in Rhode Island during the past twelve (12) months, as well as

any person who seeks to participate in any mentoring program whereby the individual shall be working with a student or students as a mentor or in a mentoring situation, shall undergo a national and state criminal background check"

No where in this law does it specify that mentoring is allowed to take place even if it takes place at a business, not on school grounds, or not during school hours. The mentor and the school is not exempt from the law. It is a law, the law must be followed or Warwick will potentially lose $36+ Million of state funding, additionally without the state and federal background check, the schools can not be sure there is not a risk to the student. I believe the original intent of the law was to protect the students. There is no exemption for school projects.

Additional information is going out to the students. I have also asked that all updates be posted on the Warwick Schools website. www.warwickschools.org. If a student already completed the mentoring portion, they will be able to use it and will get credit for it. If a student has completed 1+ hours of mentoring time, they will be allow to present what they have in their project. If a student has not yet begun any mentoring, they can not have a mentor for the project. Corresponding with a mentor via email to gain information is allowable. This information will be posted on the Warwick Schools site as well.

I was told tonight that there are up to 13 districts with a Senior Project with a mentor component. We are not in this alone. We are working on getting the correct information and putting it out as quickly as possible.

RIDE was consulted and their interpretation of the law is just that, their interpretation of the law. There was another law RIDE interpreted just 2 years ago. The law allowed the cities and towns to reduce their Maintenance of Effort by 5%. This reduced local funds to the schools by $6.2 Million. RIDE interpreted the reduction to be for 1 year only. As we know from history, the city was allowed to keep the reduced level as the new Maintenance of Effort for the schools. This means the reduced funding is still in place. RIDE was wrong when it came to the MOE and they are wrong now. The law itself supersedes the RIDE interpretation. RIDE can interpret however they want but the law is the law. It is the courts alone that can define an interpretation of a law created by the RI legislators, not a department within the government like the Department of Education.

Patrick Maloney

From: A step too far

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