Missouri Code of State Regulations › Title 13 - DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES › Division 35 - Children's Division › Chapter 71 - Rules for Residential Treatment Agencies for Children and Youth › Section 13 CSR 35-71.015 - Background Checks for Personnel of Residential Care Facilities and Child Placing Agencies

Current through Register Vol. 49, No. 14, July 15, 2024
PURPOSE: This proposed amendment provides a process
				  for Children's Division to make preliminary and provisional eligibility
				  determinations for applicants to commence employment at Licensed Residential
				  Care Facilities (LRCFs), License-Exempt Residential Care Facilities (LERCFs),
				  and Child Placing Agencies (CPAs) while the division completes the background
				  check required by section
				  210.493, RSMo.
(1) Definitions. For the purpose of this
				regulation, unless otherwise specified in this section or unless the context
				clearly requires otherwise, the definitions of terms specified in sections
				210.110,
				210.481, and
				210.1253, RSMo, shall
				apply to this regulation. The singular includes the plural and plural includes
				the singular. In addition, the following terms are defined as follows:
(A) "Applicant" means any individual who
				applies or is required to successfully complete the background check
				requirements for employment or presence at the Licensed Residential Care
				Facility (LRCF), License-Exempt Residential Care Facility (LERCF), or Child
				Placing Agency (CPA) by section
				210.493,
				RSMo. For the purposes of background checks conducted by the Missouri State
				Highway Patrol of the Missouri Department of Public Safety, the term
				"applicant" is further defined as specified in section
				43.539,
				RSMo.
1. Except as otherwise provided in this
				regulation, applicants for LRCFs, LERCFs, and CPAs who are required to complete
				the background check process include officers; managers; contractors with
				unsupervised access to children; volunteers with unsupervised access to
				children; employees; other support staff; owners of LRCFs and LERCFs that will
				have access to the facilities; and owners of LERCF, LRCF, and CPA that will
				have access to children.
2. Except
				as otherwise provided in this regulation, applicants for LERCFs who are
				required to complete a background check also include any applicant as defined
				in section
				43.539,
				RSMo, who has unsupervised contact with a resident of the LERCF. The following
				individuals or classes of individuals who may have unsupervised contact with a
				child who is a resident of an LERCF are not deemed to be applicants and are not
				required to submit to background checks as provided in this subsection unless
				otherwise required by law or court order:
A.
				Legal parents, step-parents, grandparents, siblings, legal guardians, and
				prospective adoptive parents who do not reside on or at the LERCF but who have
				contact or visits with a child who resides on the property of an
				LERCF;
B. Licensed or other
				lawfully qualified individuals who do not reside at or on the property of an
				LERCF, who are not employees, officers, volunteers, staff, support staff of the
				LERCF, and who provide occasional emergency professional services within the
				scope of their employment pertaining to a child who resides at or on the
				property of the LERCF, such as licensed physicians, licensed nurses, licensed
				emergency medical technicians, POST certified law enforcement officers,
				juvenile officers, division employees, prosecuting attorneys, court appointed
				special advocates (CASA) assigned by a court to a child who resides at an
				LERCF, attorneys, and court appointed guardians ad litem for children who
				reside at an LERCF; and/or
C.
				Licensed or other lawfully qualified individuals who do not reside at or on the
				property of an LERCF, who are not employees, officers, volunteers, staff,
				support staff of the LERCF, and who provide reasonably necessary, professional
				services, maintenance in an emergency when it is necessary to protect the
				health and safety of individuals at the facility and background checks are not
				reasonably possible under the circumstances, or government inspections on the
				premises of an LERCF to ensure the health and safety of the residents such as
				fire, health, and safety inspectors, and nationally recognized accrediting
				agencies, heating, construction, electrical, and plumbing
				contractors;