71-2-403 - Review of records and registries Verification Exclusion from access to adults. - Tennessee Statutes

71-2-403. Review of records and registries Verification Exclusion from access to adults.

(a)  A review of the records and registries set forth in subdivisions (a)(1)-(6) shall be conducted for all new employees or for volunteers who are counted in the staff/adult participant ratio and those volunteers who have unsupervised access to the adult participants in adult day care centers, and for all new department licensing staff who regulate the adult day care licensing program and all new counselors and supervisors providing services in the adult protective services program:

     (1)  Criminal background history;

     (2)  Juvenile records history available to the Tennessee bureau of investigation (TBI);

     (3)  Any available juvenile court records, if determined necessary by the department;

     (4)  Vulnerable persons registry pursuant to title 68, chapter 11, part 10;

     (5)  State's sex offender registry; and

     (6)  Records of indicated perpetrators of abuse or gross neglect of children or adults maintained by the department of children's services and the department of human services.

(b)  (1)  Except as otherwise provided in this subdivision (b)(1) and in subsections (c) and (e), and except where the context or intent would otherwise render the language inapplicable to the persons having access to adults in an adult day care center, the procedures, requirements and any other statutory provisions involving the requirements for disclosure forms, the methodology for obtaining and reporting the fingerprint-based criminal and available juvenile histories of a person, the exclusions of persons with a prohibited records history, the appeals processes, the department's authority to allow by rule of the department for exemptions from a verified prohibited history, permissive review procedures and any other consistent procedures, shall be the same for persons subject to this section as those provided in § 71-3-507 for persons having access to children in childcare agencies licensed by the department of human services pursuant to chapter 3, part 5 of this title; provided, that the adult day care center, and not the department, shall be responsible for all of the costs of the fingerprint background checks conducted by the TBI and the federal bureau of investigation for its employees or volunteers subject to this section.

     (2)  With respect to volunteers, this section applies only to those volunteers who serve as volunteers for more than thirty-six (36) hours in any one (1) calendar year.

(c)  The adult day care center may require that the costs of the background check be a part of the application process by a prospective employee or volunteer, or it may pay the costs and recover the costs of the fingerprint-based background checks from the prospective employee following employment. The department shall pay all costs required for its employees subject to the required background reviews.

(d)  The TBI shall make any reports of positive matches pursuant to this section in the same manner as provided for any of the processes authorized by § 71-3-507.

(e)  Conviction by a criminal court or adjudication by the juvenile court for an offense or a lesser included offense involving the physical, sexual or emotional abuse, gross neglect, financial exploitation or misuse of funds or theft from any person, or that constitutes conviction or adjudication for an offense involving violence against any person, or conviction of an offense involving the manufacture, sale, possession or distribution of any drug, or a no-contest plea to such offenses, and any pending warrants, indictments, presentments or petitions for such offenses, or the identification of any person on the departmen of health's vulnerable persons registry pursuant to title 68, chapter 11, part 10, on the state's sex offender registry or identification as a perpetrator of abuse or gross neglect of children or adults in the records of the department of children's services or department of human services as provided in § 71-3-515 shall disqualify such person from employment with, or from having any access whatsoever to adults in, an adult day care center as defined by this part, and from employment with the department as regulatory staff in the department's adult day care licensing program and service staff in the adult protective services program.

[Acts 1996, ch. 1058, § 4; 1997, ch. 449, § 2; 2000, ch. 981, § 69; 2009, ch. 410, § 1.]