Alabama education officials create plan for schools to monitor juvenile sex offenders

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Alabama education officials plan to create a model policy so that all public school systems are ready to monitor student sex offenders in two years.

State Superintendent Eric Mackey says that each local education authority can use it as their own policy by the 2020-2021 school year.

Alabama’s mandatory attendance law means that local boards of education must ensure that children younger than 16 in their districts are enrolled in some form of schooling — whether public, private, parochial schools or home-schooled, The Montgomery Advertiser reported .

The new policy is required by Annalyn’s Law, which was passed earlier this year, the Montgomery newspaper reported.

Annalyn’s Law is named after a child victim who was abused by a juvenile in Alabama. As of January, there were 1,305 juvenile sex offenders on the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency sex offender registry.

Juvenile sex offenders must submit an application to all school property and school-functions, according to a draft of the model policy. They must also meet with school personnel to create and implement an individualized safety plan.

Also, schools will continue to share information and monitor the student through school enrollment changes and school personnel changes, the newspaper reported. Officials will offer training to school personnel on how to take appropriate action when an increase or escalation of certain behaviors is noticed.

Members of the advisory committee developing the policy include the state’s Law Enforcement Agency, the Alabama Department of Education, Department of Human Resources, the Governor’s Office, the Alabama Coalition Against Rape, the Attorney General’s Office and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Republished with permission from the Associated Press.