BACKGROUND OF CHILD CARE WORKERS - H.B. 6204 (S-1): FLOOR ANALYSIS
House Bill 6204 (Substitute S-1 as reported)
Sponsor: Representative Gary Woronchak
House Committee: Family and Children Services
Senate Committee: Families, Mental Health and Human Services
CONTENT
The bill would amend the Child Protection Law (CPL) to allow the Family Independence Agency (FIA) to give an individual employed by, volunteering at, applying for employment in, or seeking to volunteer in a child care center, child caring institution, or child placing agency documentation that he or she was not named in a central registry case as the perpetrator of child abuse or child neglect; and allow the FIA to develop an automated system, accessible to the public, in which such a person could be listed.
Upon written request, the FIA could provide to an individual documentation stating that he or she was not named in a central registry case as the perpetrator of child abuse or child neglect. For the purpose of applying for employment or seeking to volunteer, a prospective employee or volunteer could share the document provided by the FIA with the child care center's owner or licensee, or a child caring institution or child placing agency, or an individual authorized by the center's owner or licensee, the institution, or the agency.
The FIA could develop an automated system that would allow a person applying for child-related employment or seeking to volunteer in a capacity that would allow unsupervised access to children to be listed in that system if a screening found that he or she had not been named in a central registry case as the perpetrator of child abuse or child neglect. The automated system would have to provide for public access to the list of people who had been screened for the purpose of complying with these provisions. The automated system would have to have appropriate safeguards and procedures to ensure that confidential information under the CPL, State law, or Federal law was not accessible or disclosed through the system.
Proposed MCL 722.627j - Legislative Analyst: Patrick Affholter
FISCAL IMPACT
The bill would have an indeterminate fiscal impact on the State. The Family Independence Agency would experience additional administrative costs in processing requests for the documents, but could charge a fee for service. Estimated costs for any automated system development would be minimal if it were linked to existing FIA automated systems, such as the central registry system, or used the FIA's worldwide web system in order to respond to requests. The FIA currently is working on a system similar to one operated by the State of California. According to a California analyst, that state charges $15 per inquiry to its "Trust Line", a background check system developed in the 1980s. The system queries a person on two checks: 1) fingerprints for the state criminal history and 2) the child abuse registry, including an FBI check.
Date Completed: 9-24-02 - Fiscal Analyst: Constance ColeFloor\hb6204 - Bill Analysis @ www.senate.michigan.gov/sfa
This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.