A bill under consideration in the Kansas Legislature seeks to keep sex offenders away from children.

It would bar offenders whose victims were younger than 16 from living within 2,000 feet of a school or licensed day care.

It also would mark their driver’s licenses with the word “offender” in different colors to show whether the victim was a child or adult.

Plus, the offenders would be barred from going on school property.

Speaking this past week before a Senate panel, Michell Prothe of Olathe talked about what happened when a convicted sex offender from California moved 200 feet from an elementary school last year.

Eventually the man had to move after neighbors discovered he was supposed to be under the supervision of a probation officer in Kansas but was not.

Prothe said the situation “served as a spark to illuminate a problem that affects every neighborhood and every school and every child in Kansas.”

A similar proposal failed previously because rural lawmakers feared sex offenders would migrate there as they sought to comply with the residency restrictions.

Larry Campbell, a former state lawmaker and current Olathe city councilman, said that problem prompted a request to city planners to plot areas on a city map that were 2,000 feet from a school or licensed day care.