Legislation Prohibiting Certain Felons From Working in Child Care Facilities Moves Forward

The Joint Committee on Finance is expected to pass legislation next week that will explicitly prohibit individuals who have committed certain crimes from working in a child care facility, or living at the residence of a family child care provider.  The prohibitions are either permanent or for a defined period of time depending on the offense.  Current law allows for the Department of Children and Families discretion to prohibit people who have committed “serious crimes” from being a licensed or certified provider if the department deems those crimes to be related to the health, safety or well being of children.

The bill (AB 462 and SB 331) will direct the department not to allow anyone convicted of a series of crimes related to child safety (such as sex offenders or other violent felons) or of crimes related to fraud (such as credit card or insurance fraud) from being a licensed provider or being employed at a child care facility.  AFSCME has sought amendments to the legislation to allow persons convicted of some of the crimes listed in the bill (such as persons convicted of retail theft) to be rehabilitated after a period of five years after serving their sentence and again be able to work in the child care field.  In addition, we have sought amendments to allow licensed or certified providers to have a period of time to remedy the situation if their employee or, in the case of family child care providers, someone in their household has been convicted of one of the crimes related to fraud, before the department is required to close the program down.

For more information click below:  

AB 462

SB331

For more information, contact the AFSCME lobbyists at 608-836-6666.