125.14A - PERSONNEL OF A LICENSED PROGRAM ADMITTING JUVENILES. - Iowa Statutes

125.14A PERSONNEL OF A LICENSED PROGRAM ADMITTING JUVENILES. 1. If a person is being considered for licensure 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 program admitting juveniles subject to licensure under this chapter, or if a person will reside in a facility utilized by such a program, and if the person has been convicted of a crime or has a record of founded child abuse, the department of human services and the program, for an employee of the program, shall perform an evaluation to determine whether the crime or founded child abuse warrants prohibition of licensure, employment, or residence in the facility. The department of human services 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 of human services. 2. If the department of human services determines that a person has committed a crime or has a record of founded child abuse and is licensed, employed by a program licensed under this chapter, or resides in a licensed facility the department shall notify the program that an evaluation will be conducted to determine whether prohibition of the person's licensure, employment, or residence is warranted. 3. In an evaluation, the department of human services and the program for an employee of the program 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 of human services may permit a person who is evaluated to be licensed, employed, or to reside, or to continue to be licensed, employed, or to reside in a program, if the person complies with the department's conditions relating to the person's licensure, employment, or residence, which may include completion of additional training. For an employee of a licensee, these conditional requirements shall be developed with the licensee. The department of human services has final authority in determining whether prohibition of the person's licensure, employment, or residence is warranted and in developing any conditional requirements under this subsection. 4. If the department of human services determines that the person has committed a crime or has a record of founded child abuse which warrants prohibition of licensure, employment, or residence, the person shall not be licensed under this chapter to operate a program admitting juveniles and shall not be employed by a program or reside in a facility admitting juveniles licensed under this chapter. 5. In addition to the record checks required under this section, 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 this section, 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 check conducted under this subsection. 6. Beginning July 1, 1994, a program or facility 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. 7. On or after July 1, 1994, a program or facility 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?"          Section History: Recent Form 90 Acts, ch 1221, § 1; 91 Acts, ch 138, § 1; 92 Acts, ch 1163, § 33; 94 Acts, ch 1130, §11 Referred to in § 125.3, 125.7