1.1                          A bill for an act
  1.2             relating to public safety; requiring school hiring 
  1.3             authorities to conduct background checks of teachers 
  1.4             and other professional school staff; proposing coding 
  1.5             for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 120. 
  1.6   BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
  1.7      Section 1.  [120.1045] [BACKGROUND CHECK.] 
  1.8      Subdivision 1.  [BACKGROUND CHECK REQUIREMENTS.] Before 
  1.9   hiring an individual who is applying for a position to 
  1.10  administer a school or to instruct, counsel, coach, or supervise 
  1.11  a child, the hiring authority of a school shall conduct on the 
  1.12  applicant a criminal records check of the state criminal records 
  1.13  repository.  The hiring authority shall also determine whether 
  1.14  the applicant has been the subject of a substantiated report of 
  1.15  child maltreatment under section 626.556 as provided for under 
  1.16  subdivision 2.  If the applicant has resided in Minnesota for 
  1.17  less than ten years, the check must also include a criminal 
  1.18  records check of information from state law enforcement agencies 
  1.19  in the states where the person resided during the ten years 
  1.20  before moving to Minnesota, and of the national criminal records 
  1.21  repository including the criminal justice data communications 
  1.22  network.  The applicant's failure to cooperate with the hiring 
  1.23  authority in conducting the records check is reasonable cause to 
  1.24  deny the application.  The hiring authority may not release the 
  1.25  results of the record check to any person except the applicant. 
  2.1      Subd. 2.  [CHILD MALTREATMENT REPORTS.] In order to 
  2.2   determine if an applicant has been the subject of a 
  2.3   substantiated report of child maltreatment under section 
  2.4   626.556, the hiring authority shall contact the commissioner of 
  2.5   human services and the local welfare agency in any county in 
  2.6   which the applicant has resided or been employed in the previous 
  2.7   ten years and any other county of which the hiring authority is 
  2.8   aware in which the applicant has resided or been employed.  The 
  2.9   hiring authority shall request that the commissioner and each 
  2.10  county agency contacted search their records and forward any 
  2.11  records in which the applicant is the subject of a substantiated 
  2.12  report of child maltreatment.  Notwithstanding section 626.556, 
  2.13  subdivision 11, a county or the commissioner shall provide a 
  2.14  hiring authority, upon request, with any reports of 
  2.15  substantiated child maltreatment under section 626.556 by the 
  2.16  applicant.  The commissioner of human services and the county 
  2.17  agency shall respond to the commissioner's inquiry within seven 
  2.18  days after receiving the request.  The hiring authority shall 
  2.19  not consider a background check to be complete until responses 
  2.20  from the commissioner of human services and each county agency 
  2.21  contacted have been received. 
  2.22     Subd. 3.  [EXEMPTION.] The requirements of this section do 
  2.23  not apply to hiring authorities of home schools.  
  2.24     Sec. 2.  [EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICATION.] 
  2.25     Section 1 is effective August 1, 1995, and applies to 
  2.26  hiring authorities who hire employees covered by section 1 on or 
  2.27  after that date.