GA Code § 20-1A-39 (2021)
2021 Georgia Code|Title 20 - Education|Chapter 1A - Early Care and Learning|Article 2 - Background Checks|§ 20-1A-39. Potential Employees; Current Employees and Directors; Comprehensive Records Check Requirements; Satisfactory Determination; Liability for Hiring Ineligible Employee

  Before a person may become an employee of any early care and education program after that early care and education program has received a license or commission, that early care and education program shall require that person to obtain a comprehensive records check determination that is satisfactory. All potential employees, excluding students currently enrolled in an early education curriculum through an accredited school of higher education, may submit evidence, satisfactory to the department, that the potential employee received a comprehensive records check determination that is satisfactory and that includes a records check clearance date that is no more than 12 months old, notwithstanding Code Section 20-1A-45, or that any potential employee whose comprehensive records check revealed a criminal record of any kind has either subsequently received a comprehensive records check determination that is satisfactory or has had the unsatisfactory determination reversed in accordance with Code Section 20-1A-43, notwithstanding Code Section 20-1A-45. A student currently enrolled in an early education curriculum through an accredited school of higher education may submit evidence, satisfactory to the department, that the student received a comprehensive records check determination that is satisfactory and that includes a records check clearance date that is no more than 24 months old, notwithstanding Code Section 20-1A-45, or that such student whose comprehensive records check determination revealed a criminal record of any kind has either subsequently received a comprehensive records check determination that is satisfactory or has had the unsatisfactory determination reversed in accordance with Code Section 20-1A-43, notwithstanding Code Section 20-1A-45. The licensed or commissioned early care and education program shall maintain documentation in the employee's personnel file, which is available to the department upon request, which reflects that a comprehensive records check determination that is satisfactory was received before the employee is eligible to be present at a facility while children are present for care or to reside in a facility. If the comprehensive records check determination for any potential employee reveals a criminal record of any kind, such potential employee shall be ineligible to be present at a facility while children are present for care or to reside in a facility until such potential employee has either obtained a comprehensive records check determination that is satisfactory or has had the unsatisfactory comprehensive records check determination reversed in accordance with Code Section 20-1A-43, notwithstanding Code Section 20-1A-45. If the comprehensive records check determination is unsatisfactory, the licensed or commissioned early care and education program shall, after receiving notification of such unsatisfactory determination, take such immediate steps as are necessary so that such person is no longer present at the facility while children are present for care and no longer resides in the facility. The department shall revoke the license or commission of an early care and education program if the early care and education program fails to comply with the requirements of this Code section. The time frames set forth in this subsection shall not apply when fingerprints have been retained by the department due to its participation in the program described in subparagraph (a)(1)(F) of Code Section 35-3-33.   Effective January 1, 2019, every employee and director of any licensed or commissioned early care and education program shall undergo additional comprehensive records check determinations such that the time between such additional comprehensive records check determinations and that employee's or director's previous comprehensive records check determination shall not exceed five years except when fingerprints have been retained by the department due to its participation in the program described in subparagraph (a)(1)(F) of Code Section 35-3-33, notwithstanding Code Section 20-1A-45. The early care and education program shall maintain documentation in the appropriate personnel file, which is available to the department immediately upon request, indicating that such person has obtained such current comprehensive records check determination that is satisfactory or has had an unsatisfactory comprehensive records check determination reversed in accordance with Code Section 20-1A-43, notwithstanding Code Section 20-1A-45. The department shall revoke the license or commission of an early care and education program if the early care and education program fails to comply with the requirements of this Code section.   A license or commission shall be subject to revocation and the department may refuse to issue a license or commission if a director or employee does not undergo the comprehensive records check determination applicable to that director or employee and receive acceptable determinations.   After the issuance of a license, commission, or permit, the department may require additional comprehensive records check determinations on any director or employee when the department has reason to believe the director or employee has a criminal record that renders the director or employee ineligible to have contact with children in the early care and education program, or during the course of a child abuse investigation involving the director or employee.   No licensed or commissioned early care and education program may allow any person to be present at a facility while children are present for care or to reside in a facility as a director or an employee unless there is on file in the early care and education program an employment history and a satisfactory comprehensive records check determination or proof that an unsatisfactory determination has been reversed in accordance with Code Section 20-1A-43, notwithstanding Code Section 20-1A-45. The department shall revoke the license or commission of any early care and education program if the early care and education program fails to comply with the requirements of this Code section.   A license holder, commission holder, permit holder, or director of a licensed, commissioned, or permitted early care and education program that allows an employee or director about whom such license holder, commission holder, permit holder, or director knows or should reasonably know to have a criminal record that renders the employee or director ineligible to have contact with children to be present at a facility while children are present for care or to reside in a facility shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.     (Code 1981, §20-1A-39, enacted by Ga. L. 2004, p. 645, § 1; Ga. L. 2013, p. 285, § 2/HB 350; Ga. L. 2015, p. 965, § 2/HB 401; Ga. L. 2018, p. 507, § 2-5/SB 336; Ga. L. 2018, p. 1101, § 11/HB 494; Ga. L. 2019, p. 1056, § 20/SB 52.)    The 2015 amendment,  effective January 1, 2016, rewrote this Code section.    The 2018 amendments.  The first 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, deleted "satisfactory" preceding "fingerprint records check" and inserted "that is satisfactory" throughout subsection (a) and in the second sentence of subsection (c); in subsection (a), in the second and third sentences, inserted "is satisfactory and that" in the middle, deleted "fingerprint records check" following "unsatisfactory" near the end of the fifth sentence and in the second sentence of subsection (c), and added the eighth sentence; in subsection (c), in the first sentence, inserted "an" near the middle, substituted "check determination" for "checks" two times in the middle, and added the exception at the end. The second 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, throughout this Code section, substituted "comprehensive" for "fingerprint" and inserted ", notwithstanding Code Section 20-1A-45"; rewrote subsection (a); deleted former subsection (b), which read: "By no later than January 1, 2017, every current employee and director of any licensed or commissioned early care and education program shall obtain either a satisfactory fingerprint records check determination or shall have had an unsatisfactory fingerprint records check determination reversed in accordance with Code Section 20-1A-43. The early care and education program shall maintain such documentation in the appropriate personnel file, which is available to the department immediately upon request. If the fingerprint records check determination is unsatisfactory, the licensed or commissioned early care and education program shall, after receiving notification of the determination, take such steps as are necessary so that such person no longer resides at the early care and education program or is no longer present at the early care and education program while children are present for care. The department shall revoke the license or commission of an early care and education program if the early care and education program fails to comply with the requirements of this Code section."; redesignated former subsections (c) through (g) as present subsections (b) through (f), respectively; and, in subsection (b), in the first sentence, inserted "determinations" twice and inserted "determination"; deleted "suspension or" preceding "revocation" near the beginning of subsection (c); substituted "be present at a facility while children are present for care or to reside in a facility" for "reside at an early care and education program or be present at a licensed or permitted early care and education program while children are present for care" in the middle of the first sentence of subsection (e); and, in subsection (f), substituted "program that allows an employee or director about" for "program having an employee or director" in the middle and substituted "to be present at a facility while children are present for care or to reside in a facility" for "in the early care and education program" near the end. See the Code Commission note regarding the effect of these amendments.    The 2019 amendment,  effective May 12, 2019, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, substituted "comprehensive records check determinations" for "comprehensive records checks determinations" in two places in the first sentence of subsection (b).   Code Commission notes.   - Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2018, the amendment of portions of subsection (b) of this Code section by Ga. L. 2018, p. 507, § 2-5/SB 336, was treated as impliedly repealed and superseded by Ga. L. 2018, p. 1101, § 11/HB 494, due to irreconcilable conflict.   Law reviews.   - For article on the 2018 amendment of this Code section, see 35 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 119 (2018).