- July 11, 2025
Per a Florida State Statute that goes into effect in 2026, the Palm Coast City Council is ironing out an ordinance requiring all coaches and assistant coaches to undergo a Level 2 background check.
Though none of Palm Coast's sports organizations are operated through the city, many use the city's parks and fields for their games. A Level 2 background checks is includes a state and national criminal history search using fingerprinting.
The new Florida statute requiring the background checks was passed in 2024, Parks and Recreation Director James Hirst said at the June 10 City Council meeting, but is not in effect until July 1, 2026. The statute requires all background checks go through the Agency for Health Care Administration Clearinghouse and states that no one may serve as a coach without a complete background check.
Hirst said the city already requires Level 2 background checks for any employees, volunteers and event vendors.
"Any vendor that interacts with children - Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, things like that - they also have to go through a Level 2 background check," Hirst said.
Instead of requiring coaches to perform background checks through city, incurring additional costs, the council decided to go the route of having teams and organizations sign affidavits swearing their coaches have completed the background checks, and include a list of the coaches.
The details are still being worked out. Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri asked that proof the checks were conducted be provided to the city, while the entire council debated on what would disqualify coaches from assisting.
Acting City Manager Lauren Johnston said typically parent organizations - like Little League - already require Level 2 background checks be performed on coaches. Council member Ty Miller, however, said those searches focus on child-related crimes, instead of including certain drug and violence charges.
"It doesn't seem right to me," Miller said.
Miller proposed including violent and drug crimes as part of the disqualifying factors, but also suggested a time element be considered as well.
"You don't want to exclude someone who did something 18 years ago and has now cleaned up their life," Miller said.
Pontieri agreed. Some of the children in these programs, she said, come from a troubled background themselves.
"Sometimes it takes a person who's been through that to pull a kid out of it," she said. "I certainly don't want to disqualify coaches who have turned their lives around."
But deciding what does and does not qualify will take more discussion. Mayor Mike Norris said he was concerned about possibly opening the process up to discrimination or getting the city too "into the weeds" on deciding what disqualifies individuals.
