HSB 609 (LSB 5030YC (4) 85)

HOUSE FILE _____

BY  (PROPOSED COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE BILL BY CHAIRPERSON COWNIE)

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to the registration of child care homes and including effective date provisions.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 135.173A, subsection 4, paragraph e, Code 2014, is amended by striking the paragraph.
    Sec. 2.  Section 135.173A, subsection 4, paragraph f, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   f.  Three Four child development home providers.
    Sec. 3.  Section 142D.2, subsection 13, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   13.  “Place of employment” means an area under the control of an employer and includes all areas that an employee frequents during the course of employment or volunteering, including but not limited to work areas, private offices, conference and meeting rooms, classrooms, auditoriums, employee lounges and cafeterias, hallways, medical facilities, restrooms, elevators, stairways and stairwells, and vehicles owned, leased, or provided by the employer unless otherwise provided under this chapter. “Place of employment” does not include a private residence, unless the private residence is used as a child care facility, a child care home, or as a health care provider location.
    Sec. 4.  Section 142D.2, subsection 16, paragraphs t and u, Code 2014, are amended to read as follows:
   t.  Private residences only when used as a child care facility, a child care home, or health care provider location.
   u.  Child care facilities and child care homes.
    Sec. 5.  Section 142D.4, subsection 1, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   1.  Private residences, unless used as a child care facility, child care home, or a health care provider location.
    Sec. 6.  Section 237.1, subsection 4, paragraph d, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   d.  Child care furnished by a child care center, or a child development home, or a child care home as defined in section 237A.1.
    Sec. 7.  Section 237A.1, subsection 3, unnumbered paragraph 1, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:

   “Child care” means the care, supervision, and guidance of a child by a person other than the child’s parent, guardian, grandparent, relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity to the child, or custodian for periods of less than twenty-four hours per day per child on a regular basis, but does not include care, supervision, and guidance of a child by any of the following:
    Sec. 8.  Section 237A.1, subsection 6, Code 2014, is amended by striking the subsection.
    Sec. 9.  Section 237A.1, subsection 7, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   7.  “Child development home” means a person or program registered under section 237A.3A that may provide child care to six one or more children at any one time.
    Sec. 10.  Section 237A.1, subsection 11, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   11.  “Involvement with child care” means licensed or registered under this chapter, employed in a child care facility, residing in a child care facility, receiving public funding for providing child care, or providing child care as a child care home provider, or residing in a child care home with a person receiving public funding for providing child care in the person’s home.
    Sec. 11.  Section 237A.3B, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   237A.3B  Smoking prohibited.

   Smoking, as defined in section 142D.2, shall not be permitted in a child care facility or child care home.
    Sec. 12.  Section 237A.5, subsection 2, paragraph a, subparagraph (1), subparagraph division (e), Code 2014, is amended by striking the subparagraph division.
    Sec. 13.  Section 237A.5, subsection 2, paragraph b, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   b.  If an individual person subject to a record check is being considered for employment by a child care facility or child care home provider, in lieu of requesting a record check in this state to be conducted by the department under paragraph “c”, the child care facility or child care home may access the single contact repository established pursuant to section 135C.33 as necessary to conduct a criminal and child abuse record check of the individual in this state. A copy of the results of the record check conducted through the single contact repository shall also be provided to the department. If the record check indicates the individual is a person subject to an evaluation, the child care facility or child care home may request that the department perform an evaluation as provided in this subsection. Otherwise, the individual shall not be employed by the child care facility or child care home.
    Sec. 14.  Section 237A.5, subsection 2, paragraph d, subparagraph (2), Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   (2)  Except as otherwise provided by law, the cost of a national criminal history check conducted in accordance with subparagraph (1) and the state record checks conducted in accordance with paragraph “c” that are conducted in connection with a person’s involvement with a child care center are not the responsibility of the department. The department is responsible for the cost of such checks conducted in connection with a person’s involvement with a child development home or child care home.
    Sec. 15.  Section 237A.5, subsection 2, paragraph e, subparagraph (2), Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   (2)  Prior to performing an evaluation, the department shall notify the affected person, licensee, or registrant, or child care home applying for or receiving public funding for providing child care, that an evaluation will be conducted to determine whether prohibition of the person’s involvement with child care is warranted.
    Sec. 16.  Section 237A.5, subsection 2, paragraph g, unnumbered paragraph 1, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:

   A person subject to a record check who is or was employed by a child care facility or child care home provider and is hired by another child care facility or child care home provider shall be subject to a record check in accordance with this subsection. However, if the person was subject to an evaluation because of a transgression in the person’s record and the evaluation determined that the transgression did not warrant prohibition of the person’s involvement with child care and the latest record checks do not indicate there is a transgression that was committed subsequent to that evaluation, the person may commence employment with the other child care facility or provider in accordance with the department’s evaluation and an exemption from any requirements for reevaluation of the latest record checks is authorized. Authorization of an exemption under this paragraph “g” from requirements for reevaluation of the latest record checks by the department is subject to all of the following provisions:
    Sec. 17.  Section 237A.5, subsection 2, paragraph i, subparagraph (2), Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   (2)  If, within five years prior to the date of application for registration or licensure under this chapter, for employment or residence in a child care facility or child care home, or for receipt of public funding for providing child care, a person subject to an evaluation has been convicted of a controlled substance offense under chapter 124 or has been found to have committed physical abuse, the person shall be prohibited from involvement with child care for a period of five years from the date of conviction or founded abuse. After the five-year prohibition period, the person may submit an application for registration or licensure under this chapter, or to receive public funding for providing child care or may request an evaluation, and the department shall perform an evaluation and, based upon the criteria in paragraph “h”, shall determine whether prohibition of the person’s involvement with child care continues to be warranted.
    Sec. 18.  Section 237A.5, subsection 2, paragraph k, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   k.  If it has been determined that a child receiving child care from a child care facility or a child care home is the victim of founded child abuse committed by an employee, license or registration holder, child care home provider person who receives public funding for providing child care or an individual residing with that person, or resident of the child care facility or child care home for which a report is placed in the central registry pursuant to section 232.71D, the administrator shall provide notification at the time of the determination to the parents, guardians, and custodians of children receiving care from the child care facility or child care home. A notification made under this paragraph shall identify the type of abuse but shall not identify the victim or perpetrator or circumstances of the founded abuse.
    Sec. 19.  Section 237A.12, subsection 1, paragraph c, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   c.  The adequacy of activity programs and food services available to the children. The department shall not restrict the use of or apply nutritional standards to a lunch or other meal which is brought to the center, or child development home, or child care home by a school-age child for the child’s consumption.
    Sec. 20.  Section 237A.13, subsection 2, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   2.  Services under the program may be provided in by a licensed child care center, a registered child development home, the home of a relative, the child’s own home, a child care home, or in a facility exempt from licensing or registration.
    Sec. 21.  Section 237A.19, subsections 2 and 3, Code 2014, are amended to read as follows:
   2.  If registration is required under section 237A.3A, a A person who establishes, conducts, manages, or operates a child development home without registering or a person who operates a child development home contrary to section 237A.5, commits a simple misdemeanor. Each day of continuing violation after conviction, or notice from the department by certified mail of the violation, is a separate offense. A single charge alleging continuing violation may be made in lieu of filing charges for each day of violation.
   3.  A person who establishes, conducts, manages, or operates a child care home in violation of section 237A.3, subsection 2, or a person or program that has been prohibited by the department from involvement with child care but continues that involvement commits a simple misdemeanor. Each day of continuing violation after conviction, or notice from the department by certified mail of the violation, is a separate offense. A single charge alleging continuing violation may be made in lieu of filing charges for each day of violation.
    Sec. 22.  Section 237A.20, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   237A.20  Injunction.

   A person who establishes, conducts, manages, or operates a center without a license or a child development home without a certificate of registration, if registration is required under section 237A.3A, may be restrained by temporary or permanent injunction. A person who has been convicted of a crime against a person, a person with a record of founded child abuse, or a person who has been prohibited by the department from involvement with child care may be restrained by temporary or permanent injunction from providing unregistered, registered, or licensed any child care or from other involvement with child care. The action may be instituted by the state, the county attorney, a political subdivision of the state, or an interested person.
    Sec. 23.  Section 237A.26, subsection 3, paragraph a, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   a.  Organize assistance to child care homes and child care facilities utilizing training levels based upon the child care providers’ degrees of experience and interest.
    Sec. 24.  Section 237A.26, subsection 8, Code 2014, is amended to read as follows:
   8.  For purposes of improving the quality and consistency of data collection, consultation, and other support to child care home and child development home providers, a resource and referral services agency grantee shall coordinate and assist with publicly and privately funded efforts administered at the community level to provide the support. The support and efforts addressed by a grantee may include but are not limited to community-funded child care home and child development home consultants. Community members involved with the assistance may include but are not limited to the efforts of an early childhood Iowa area board under chapter 256I, and of community representatives of education, health, human services, business, faith, and public interests.
    Sec. 25.  REPEAL.  Section 237A.3, Code 2014, is repealed.
    Sec. 26.  EFFECTIVE DATE.  This Act takes effect January 1, 2015.
    Sec. 27.  IMPLEMENTATION.  The department of human services shall adopt rules to facilitate full implementation of this Act by January 1, 2015.
EXPLANATION
The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with

the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
   This bill requires registration of all child care homes. Currently, a child care home can operate with five or fewer children without registering with the department of human services. The bill eliminates references to child care homes, replacing that term with the term “child development home”, as amended by the bill, which means a person or program registered to provide child care for one or more children at any time. The bill does provide an exception from the registration requirement for a person who provides care to one or more children for whom the person is a grandparent or other relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity to the child. The bill makes conforming changes.
   The bill takes effect January 1, 2015, and the department of human services shall adopt rules to facilitate full implementation of the bill by January 1, 2015.