A law that has vexed school districts since its adoption last year is getting an adjustment.

Gov. Brian Sandoval signed an emergency regulation Wednesday that clarifies requirements for volunteer background checks — a move designed to reduce some of the confusion around the well-intended, albeit cumbersome, new law.

Lawmakers passed the bipartisan measure during the 2017 legislative session. It requires fingerprints and background checks for regular school volunteers. Although considered a safety enhancement, the law came with a price tag: a $60 processing fee in the Clark County School District. The cost and confusion related to the law led to ongoing complaints from both school officials and would-be volunteers.

The revision defines regular volunteer as someone who visits a school for that purpose four or more times per month or at least once a week for four or more consecutive weeks. The emergency regulation also carves out exemptions for:

• Volunteers who have already gone through a background check within the preceding six months for either a governmental entity or a nonprofit organization and have been deemed eligible to interact with students.
• Volunteers employed in a federal, state or local governmental position that requires background checks because of unsupervised meetings with students.

“I really appreciate the work that Governor Sandoval and Senator Heidi Gansert have done so that the important role our volunteers perform goes uninterrupted while we also ensure that proper protections are in place for our students,” State Superintendent Steve Canavero said in a statement.

The emergency regulation essentially serves as a temporary fix until the Legislative Commission likely adopts a permanent regulation later this year. Its first stop will be a hearing at a State Board of Education meeting in October.