237A.5 - PERSONNEL.
237A.5 PERSONNEL.
1. All personnel in licensed or registered facilities shall have
good health as evidenced by a report following a preemployment
physical examination taken within six months prior to beginning
employment. The examination shall include communicable disease tests
by a licensed physician as defined in section 135C.1 and shall be
repeated every three years after initial employment. Controlled
medical conditions which would not affect the performance of the
employee in the capacity employed shall not prohibit employment.
2. a. For the purposes of this section, unless the context
otherwise requires:
(1) "Person subject to a record check" means a person who is
described by any of the following:
(a) The person is being considered for licensure or registration
or is registered or licensed under this chapter.
(b) The person is being considered by a child care facility for
employment involving direct responsibility for a child or with access
to a child when the child is alone or is employed with such
responsibilities.
(c) The person will reside or resides in a child care facility.
(d) The person has applied for or receives public funding for
providing child care.
(e) The person will reside or resides in a child care home that
is not registered under this chapter but that receives public funding
for providing child care.
(2) "Person subject to an evaluation" means a person subject
to a record check whose record indicates that the person has
committed a transgression.
(3) "Transgression" means the existence of any of the
following in a person's record:
(a) Conviction of a crime.
(b) A record of having committed founded child or dependent adult
abuse.
(c) Listing in the sex offender registry under chapter 692A.
(d) A record of having committed a public or civil offense.
(e) The department has revoked a child care facility registration
or license due to the person's continued or repeated failure to
operate the child care facility in compliance with this chapter and
rules adopted pursuant to this chapter.
b. If an individual person subject to a record check is being
considered for employment by a child care facility or child care home
provider, in lieu of requesting a record check in this state to be
conducted by the department under paragraph "c", the child care
facility or child care home may access the single contact repository
established pursuant to section 135C.33 as necessary to conduct a
criminal and child abuse record check of the individual in this
state. A copy of the results of the record check conducted through
the single contact repository shall also be provided to the
department. If the record check indicates the individual is a person
subject to an evaluation, the child care facility or child care home
may request that the department perform an evaluation as provided in
this subsection. Otherwise, the individual shall not be employed by
the child care facility or child care home.
c. Unless a record check has already been conducted in
accordance with paragraph "b", the department shall conduct a
criminal and child abuse record check in this state for a person who
is subject to a record check and may conduct such a check in other
states. In addition, the department may conduct a dependent adult
abuse, sex offender registry, or other public or civil offense record
check in this state or in other states for a person who is subject to
a record check.
d. (1) For a person subject to a record check, in addition to
any other record check conducted pursuant to this subsection, the
person's fingerprints shall be provided to the department of public
safety for submission through the state criminal history repository
to the United States department of justice, federal bureau of
investigation for a national criminal history check. The national
criminal history check shall be repeated every four years.
(2) Except as otherwise provided by law, the cost of a national
criminal history check conducted in accordance with subparagraph (1)
and the state record checks conducted in accordance with paragraph
"c" that are conducted in connection with a person's involvement
with a child care center are not the responsibility of the
department. The department is responsible for the cost of such
checks conducted in connection with a person's involvement with a
child development home or child care home.
(3) If record checks under paragraph "b" or "c" have been
conducted on a person subject to a record check and the results do
not warrant prohibition of the person's involvement with child care
or otherwise present protective concerns, the person may be involved
with child care on a provisional basis until the record check under
subparagraph (1) has been completed.
(4) For the period beginning July 1, 2009, and ending June 30,
2013:
(a) The requirement in subparagraph (1) shall only apply to
owners and employees of licensed child care centers and licensed
child development homes and is applicable beginning on and after
January 1, 2010, at the time of initial application for or renewal of
a center's or home's license and the cost provisions of subparagraph
(2) are applicable to owners and employees of centers beginning at
the same time.
(b) Except for child development home providers who voluntarily
license and are addressed by subparagraph division (a), and child
development home providers participating in the child care quality
rating system at a level under which national records checks are
required in accordance with departmental rule, the national record
check requirement in subparagraph (1) is not applicable in connection
with a child development home or child care home throughout the
period.
(c) This subparagraph (4) is repealed on July 1, 2013.
e. (1) If a record check performed pursuant to this
subsection identifies an individual as a person subject to an
evaluation, an evaluation shall be performed to determine whether
prohibition of the person's involvement with child care is warranted.
The evaluation shall be performed in accordance with procedures
adopted for this purpose by the department.
(2) Prior to performing an evaluation, the department shall
notify the affected person, licensee, registrant, or child care home
applying for or receiving public funding for providing child care,
that an evaluation will be conducted to determine whether prohibition
of the person's involvement with child care is warranted.
f. If a record check performed in accordance with paragraph
"b" or "c" identifies that an individual is a person subject
to an evaluation, the department shall perform the evaluation in
accordance with this subsection, even if the application which made
the person subject to the record check is withdrawn or the
circumstances which made the person subject to the record check are
no longer applicable. If the department's evaluation determines that
prohibition of the person's involvement with child care is warranted,
the provisions of this subsection regarding such a prohibition shall
apply.
g. In an evaluation, the department shall consider the nature
and seriousness of the transgression in relation to the position
sought or held, the time elapsed since the commission of the
transgression, the circumstances under which the transgression was
committed, the degree of rehabilitation, the likelihood that the
person will commit the transgression again, and the number of
transgressions committed by the person involved. In addition to
record check information, the department may utilize information from
the department's case records in performing the evaluation. The
department may permit a person who is evaluated to maintain
involvement with child care, if the person complies with the
department's conditions and corrective action plan relating to the
person's involvement with child care. The department has final
authority in determining whether prohibition of the person's
involvement with child care is warranted and in developing any
conditional requirements and corrective action plan under this
paragraph.
h. (1) A person subject to an evaluation shall be prohibited
from involvement with child care if the person has a record of
founded child or dependent adult abuse that was determined to be
sexual abuse, the person is listed on the sex offender registry under
chapter 692A, or the person has committed any of the following
felony-level offenses:
(a) Child endangerment or neglect or abandonment of a dependent
person.
(b) Domestic abuse.
(c) A crime against a child including but not limited to sexual
exploitation of a minor.
(d) A forcible felony.
(2) If, within five years prior to the date of application for
registration or licensure under this chapter, for employment or
residence in a child care facility or child care home, or for receipt
of public funding for providing child care, a person subject to an
evaluation has been convicted of a controlled substance offense under
chapter 124 or has been found to have committed physical abuse, the
person shall be prohibited from involvement with child care for a
period of five years from the date of conviction or founded abuse.
After the five-year prohibition period, the person may submit an
application for registration or licensure under this chapter, or to
receive public funding for providing child care or may request an
evaluation, and the department shall perform an evaluation and, based
upon the criteria in paragraph "g", shall determine whether
prohibition of the person's involvement with child care continues to
be warranted.
i. If the department determines, through an evaluation of a
person's transgression, that the person's prohibition of involvement
with child care is warranted, the person shall be prohibited from
involvement with child care. The department may identify a period of
time after which the person may request that another record check and
evaluation be performed. A person who continues involvement with
child care in violation of this subsection is subject to penalty
under section 237A.19 or injunction under section 237A.20.
j. If it has been determined that a child receiving child
care from a child care facility or a child care home is the victim of
founded child abuse committed by an employee, license or registration
holder, child care home provider, or resident of the child care
facility or child care home for which a report is placed in the
central registry pursuant to section 232.71D, the administrator shall
provide notification at the time of the determination to the parents,
guardians, and custodians of children receiving care from the child
care facility or child care home. A notification made under this
paragraph shall identify the type of abuse but shall not identify the
victim or perpetrator or circumstances of the founded abuse.
3. On or after July 1, 1994, a licensee or registrant 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.
4. On or after July 1, 1994, a licensee or registrant 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?"
5. A person who serves as an unpaid volunteer in a child care
facility shall not be required to complete training as a mandatory
reporter of child abuse under section 232.69 or under any other
requirement. Section History: Early Form
[C75, 77, 79, 81, § 237A.5] Section History: Recent Form
83 Acts, ch 153, § 5; 85 Acts, ch 184, §1; 87 Acts, ch 153, § 17;
88 Acts, ch 1134, §58; 90 Acts, ch 1221, § 8; 91 Acts, ch 138, §8; 94
Acts, ch 1130, §15; 97 Acts, ch 45, § 1; 98 Acts, ch 1127, §3, 6; 99
Acts, ch 192, §13; 2003 Acts, ch 81, §5, 6; 2006 Acts, ch 1098, §1;
2006 Acts, ch 1184, §108--111; 2008 Acts, ch 1187, §121; 2009 Acts,
ch 41, §99; 2009 Acts, ch 179, §209
Referred to in § 237A.19