1. All personnel in licensed or registered facilities shall have good health as evidenced by a report following a preemployment physical examination taken within six months prior to beginning employment. The examination shall include communicable disease tests by a licensed physician as defined in section 135C.1 and shall be repeated every three years after initial employment. Controlled medical conditions which would not affect the performance of the employee in the capacity employed shall not prohibit employment.
2. a. If a person is being considered for licensure or registration under this chapter, or for employment involving direct responsibility for a child or with access to a child when the child is alone, by a child day care facility subject to licensure or registration under this chapter, or if a person will reside in a facility, and if the person has been convicted of a crime or has a record of founded child abuse, the department and the licensee or registrant for an employee of the licensee or registrant shall perform an evaluation to determine whether the crime or founded child abuse warrants prohibition of licensure, registration, employment, or residence in the facility. The department shall conduct criminal and child abuse record checks in this state and may conduct these checks in other states. The evaluation shall be performed in accordance with procedures adopted for this purpose by the department.
b. If the department determines that a person has committed a crime or has a record of founded child abuse and is licensed, employed by a licensee or registrant or registered under this chapter, or resides in a licensed or registered facility the department shall notify the licensee or registrant that an evaluation will be conducted to determine whether prohibition of the person's licensure, registration, employment, or residence is warranted.
c. In an evaluation, the department and the licensee or registrant for an employee of the licensee or registrant shall consider the nature and seriousness of the crime or founded child abuse in relation to the position sought or held, the time elapsed since the commission of the crime or founded child abuse, the circumstances under which the crime or founded child abuse was committed, the degree of rehabilitation, the likelihood that the person will commit the crime or founded child abuse again, and the number of crimes or founded child abuses committed by the person involved. The department may permit a person who is evaluated to be licensed, registered, employed, or to reside, or to continue to be licensed, registered, employed, or to reside in a licensed facility, if the person complies with the department's conditions relating to the person's licensure, registration, employment, or residence, which may include completion of additional training. For an employee of a licensee or registrant, these conditional requirements shall be developed with the licensee or registrant. The department has final authority in determining whether prohibition of the person's licensure, registration, employment, or residence is warranted and in developing any conditional requirements under this paragraph.
d. If the department determines that the person has committed a crime or has a record of founded child abuse which warrants prohibition of licensure, registration, employment, or residence, the person shall not be licensed or registered under this chapter to operate a child day care facility and shall not be employed by a licensee or registrant or reside in a facility licensed or registered under this chapter.
3. In addition to the record checks required under subsection 2, the department of human services may conduct dependent adult abuse record checks in this state and may conduct these checks in other states, on a random basis. The provisions of subsection 2, relative to an evaluation following a determination that a person has been convicted of a crime or has a record of founded child abuse, shall also apply to a random dependent adult abuse record check conducted under this subsection.
4. On or after July 1, 1994, a licensee or registrant shall inform all new applicants for employment of the possibility of the performance of a record check and shall obtain, from the applicant, a signed acknowledgment of the receipt of the information.
5. On or after July 1, 1994, a licensee or registrant shall include the following inquiry in an application for employment: "Do you have a record of founded child or dependent adult abuse or have you ever been convicted of a crime, in this state or any other state?"
6. A person who receives public funds for providing child day care and who is not registered or licensed under this chapter and individuals who reside with the person shall be subject to the provisions of subsection 2 as though the person either is being considered for registration or is registered to provide child day care under this chapter. If the person or individual residing with the person would be prohibited from licensure, registration, employment, or residence under subsection 2, the person shall not provide child day care and is not eligible to receive public funds to do so. A person who continues to provide child day care in violation of this subsection is subject to penalty under section 237A.19 and injunction under section 237A.20.
[C75, 77, 79, 81, § 237A.5]
83 Acts, ch 153, § 5; 85 Acts, ch 184, §1; 87 Acts, ch 153, § 17; 88 Acts, ch 1134, §58; 90 Acts, ch 1221, § 8; 91 Acts, ch 138, §8; 94 Acts, ch 1130, §15; 97 Acts, ch 45, § 1
Referred to in § 237A.19
© 1998 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa
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