S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   10276
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                               May 13, 2022
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  COMMITTEE  ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Santabar-
   bara) -- read once and referred to the Committee on Children and Fami-
   lies
 
 AN ACT to amend the social  services  law,  in  relation  to  background
   clearances for employees and volunteers of mentoring programs
 
   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section 1. Section 390-e of the social services law, as added by chap-
 ter 459 of the laws of 2006, is amended to read as follows:
   § 390-e. Criminal history review AND/OR BACKGROUND CLEARANCES; mentor-
 ing programs. 1. For the purposes of this section, the  following  words
 shall have the following meanings:
   (a)  "Prospective  employee"  shall mean a person being considered for
 employment by a mentoring program.
   (b) "Prospective mentor" shall mean an  individual  who  is  currently
 applying  to  volunteer  to  help  a  child  or a group of children in a
 mentoring program for a period of time. Such help shall include, but not
 be limited to, being a positive role model for youth, building relation-
 ships with youth, and providing youth with academic assistance and expo-
 sure to new experiences and examples of  opportunity  that  enhance  the
 ability of children to become responsible adults.
   (c) "Mentoring program" shall mean a formalized program, operated by a
 corporation which has been incorporated pursuant to subparagraph five of
 paragraph  (a)  of  section one hundred two of the not-for-profit corpo-
 ration law or pursuant to subparagraph four of paragraph (a) of  section
 one  hundred  two  of  the  business  corporation law, or operated by an
 educational institution or school  district,  that  matches  youth  with
 adult  volunteers with the purpose of providing such youth with positive
 role models to enhance their development.
   (d) "Office" shall mean the office of children and family services.
   (E) "BACKGROUND CLEARANCE" SHALL MEAN (I) A SEARCH  OF  THE  NEW  YORK
 STATE  SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY; AND (II) A DATABASE CHECK OF THE STATEWIDE
 CENTRAL REGISTER OF CHILD ABUSE  AND  MALTREATMENT  IN  ACCORDANCE  WITH
 SECTION FOUR HUNDRED TWENTY-FOUR-A OF THIS ARTICLE.
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
              

                                                            LBD15062-03-2
 A. 10276                            2
 
   2.  Mentoring  programs  may  perform  a criminal history record check
 AND/OR BACKGROUND CLEARANCE on all prospective employees and mentors.
   3. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, subject
 to  the  rules  and  regulations  of  the  division  of criminal justice
 services AND THE OFFICE  OF  CHILDREN  AND  FAMILY  SERVICES,  mentoring
 programs may apply for a criminal history record check with the division
 of  criminal  justice  services  AND/OR  BACKGROUND  CLEARANCES WITH THE
 OFFICE OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES regarding any prospective employ-
 ee or any prospective mentor who may engage in  unsupervised  activities
 with  youth  or  in  activities with youth in a setting without constant
 agency or parental oversight. Each mentoring  program  that  chooses  to
 complete such criminal background checks AND/OR BACKGROUND CLEARANCES on
 prospective employees or on prospective mentors shall establish a policy
 for  completing  criminal background checks AND/OR BACKGROUND CLEARANCES
 on such prospective employees or mentors. Such policy  shall  apply  one
 uniform standard for the completion of criminal background checks AND/OR
 BACKGROUND  CLEARANCES  for  all  prospective  employees and one uniform
 standard for the completion of criminal background checks  AND/OR  BACK-
 GROUND  CLEARANCES  for  all  prospective mentors. Any mentoring program
 that chooses to complete criminal background  checks  AND/OR  BACKGROUND
 CLEARANCES  on  both  prospective  employees and prospective mentors may
 utilize the same uniform process for  the  completion  of  the  criminal
 background  checks AND/OR BACKGROUND CLEARANCES on prospective employees
 and prospective mentors or they  may  choose  one  uniform  process  for
 prospective  employees  and  another  uniform  process  for  prospective
 mentors.
   4. Every mentoring program that chooses to apply for a criminal histo-
 ry background check with the division of criminal justice services shall
 obtain a set of fingerprints from each individual for  whom  a  criminal
 background  check  is  to  be completed and such other information as is
 required by the office and the division of  criminal  justice  services.
 For  each  prospective employee or mentor for whom the mentoring program
 completes a criminal  background  check,  the  mentoring  program  shall
 provide  the applicant with blank fingerprint cards and a description of
 how the completed fingerprint card will be used upon submission  to  the
 mentoring  program.  The  mentoring program shall promptly transmit such
 fingerprint card and the processing fee to the office. The office  shall
 promptly  submit  the  fingerprint  card and the processing fee, imposed
 pursuant to subdivision eight-a of section eight hundred thirty-seven of
 the executive law, to the division of criminal justice services for  its
 full search and retain processing.
   5.  Upon  receipt  of  a  criminal history record from the division of
 criminal justice services AND/OR BACKGROUND CLEARANCE FROM THE OFFICE OF
 CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES, the office shall promptly provide  to  the
 mentoring  program  the criminal history record AND/OR BACKGROUND CLEAR-
 ANCE INFORMATION, if any, with respect to the  prospective  employee  or
 mentor,  or  a  statement  that  the  individual has no criminal history
 record.
   6. Upon receipt of the results of a criminal background  check  AND/OR
 BACKGROUND  CLEARANCE  pursuant  to  this section, the mentoring program
 shall determine whether or not the prospective employee or mentor  shall
 be  offered employment or the opportunity to volunteer with the program.
 Such determination shall be made in accordance with the criteria  estab-
 lished in section seven hundred fifty-two of the correction law.
   7.  Upon the request of any person previously convicted of one or more
 criminal offenses who has been denied employment pursuant to subdivision
 A. 10276                            3
 
 six of this section, the mentoring program shall provide, within  thirty
 days  of such request, a written statement setting forth the reasons for
 such denial. Any such person denied employment pursuant  to  subdivision
 six  of this section shall be afforded the opportunities for enforcement
 available pursuant to section seven hundred fifty-five of the correction
 law.
   8. Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, with the  exception
 of a sex offense or a crime against a child, a custodial parent or guar-
 dian  may  sign  a  waiver  authorizing a mentor to work with his or her
 child regardless of a criminal charge or crime related to a mentor. Such
 process shall only be initiated upon  the  consent  of  the  prospective
 mentor, and be on a form and of a content to be developed by the office.
 Where  applicable,  a mentoring program may notify a custodial parent or
 guardian of his or her waiver right, but a waiver shall only be  author-
 ized by a custodial parent or guardian.
   9. Any criminal history record AND/OR BACKGROUND CLEARANCE provided to
 a  mentoring  program  pursuant  to  this  section shall be confidential
 pursuant to the applicable federal  and  state  laws,  rules  and  regu-
 lations,  and  shall not be published or in any way disclosed to persons
 other than authorized personnel, unless otherwise authorized by law.
   10. Every mentoring program shall provide  each  custodial  parent  or
 guardian  of  every  child participating in its mentoring program with a
 description of the kind of criminal background checks AND/OR  BACKGROUND
 CLEARANCES conducted by the mentoring program on its prospective employ-
 ees  and  mentors.  Such description shall include identification of the
 source utilized to obtain criminal  background  histories  AND/OR  BACK-
 GROUND CLEARANCES on prospective employees and mentors, a list of crimes
 that  would  lead  the  program to deny employment or the opportunity to
 volunteer as a prospective employee or mentor,  and  any  other  process
 utilized  to  determine  whether or not a prospective employee or mentor
 with a conviction record shall be offered employment or the  opportunity
 to  volunteer.  Such  description  shall  clearly  state  whether or not
 prospective employees or mentors may be hired or offered the opportunity
 to volunteer despite the existence of a conviction history.
   § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.