"An Act relating to recovery of civil damages from the parents or legal guardian of a minor; and providing for an effective date."

Last September Anchorage School District went on record that they want the legislature to erase limits that limit the amount of money they can recover when students vandalize school property. Current state law limits recovery at $10,000, an amount that too often does not cover actual damages. One vandalism spree last summer resulted in damages well over $100,000. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated event. The Anchorage School District budgets approximately $250,000 per year to clean up smashed computers, windows, and other school property.

The Alaska Association of School Boards (AASB) recently passed Resolution 2.21 that encourages the legislature to remove the cap to allow recovery of actual cost of intentional vandalism. The rational: "Vandalism damages a school district's physical plant, has a negative impact on student learning, and demoralizes hard-working staff and students. Every dollar spent on repairing vandalism is a dollar we cannot invest in textbooks, teachers or technology."

SB 2 proposes a simple change to do exactly what the Anchorage School District and the AASB recommend. Foster parents will remain immune from the effects of this change because foster children are wards of the State. Adoptive parents who adopt "hard-to-place" children will be held harmless from this liability, as a result of this bill. This bill also cleans up contradicting statutes and indemnifies legal guardians-which is currently being practiced.

I anticipate discussion on whether some cap is a rational option to no cap. The question here is whether there is any legitimate governmental role to take the ultimate responsibly for a minor's action. It seems to me that the government should never take parental responsibility unless it is absolutely necessary in order to protect the best interests of the child. Five other states have no limits on damages recovered from liable parents.

Last Updated: 04/04/2003

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