Committee adds school-bus stops to residency restrictions for certain offenders

The subcommittee adopted an amendment and advanced H 6-31, a bill that would add school-bus stops to the list of locations (daycare, playgrounds, parks) from which certain convicted *** offenders are prohibited from living within 1,000 feet.

Miss Wilkinson explained the bill would require school districts to provide local law enforcement and parents at the start of each school year with lists of school-bus stops and the names and addresses of *** offenders who live within 1,000 feet of the stop where a child boards or disembarks. She said the bill clarifies that owners or renters who lived at a property before the law takes effect would not be required to relocate.

Committee members asked how moving bus stops would interact with the residency restriction; the Senator from Richland explained the bill mirrors existing residency restrictions for daycares and playgrounds so that newly created stops would not trigger retroactive relocation for occupants already living nearby. Miss Wilkinson described a technical amendment to correct statutory agency references, replacing the Department of Health and Environmental Control with the Department of Behavioral Health in cross-references. The committee adopted the amendment and approved the bill to full committee by voice vote with no recorded opposition.

Next steps: H 6-31 will be heard in full committee where additional amendments or fiscal analysis may be discussed.