Community care facilities: criminal background checks.

The existing California Community Care Facilities Act requires the State Department of Social Services to license and regulate community care facilities. The existing act requires the department to obtain a criminal history record for all applicants for licenses for these facilities and specified individuals connected with these facilities, including employees, volunteers, and officers of these facilities. The existing act prohibits persons with certain criminal convictions from obtaining a license and further prohibits these specified individuals from being present in a community care facility before obtaining either a criminal record clearance or a criminal record exemption from the department. This bill would require the department to post information on its internet website concerning applications, including the total number of applicants who submitted fingerprints for the purpose of providing criminal record information, and the number of applicants who had a nonexemptible conviction or who were granted a clearance or a criminal record exemption, as specified. The bill would require the department to publish data in aggregate and without any personally identifying information. The bill would require the department to issue a report of its findings on or before January 1, 2022. The bill would prohibit the department, in the course of securing electronic fingerprint images and criminal history information from license applicants for specified residential facilities, child daycare facilities, and home health agencies, from requiring applicants to disclose their criminal history information. Existing law authorizes the department to deny, suspend, or revoke a license, or to prohibit a person from being employed by, or having other specified relationships to, a licensed facility. Existing law establishes grounds for these actions by the department, including, but not limited to, conduct which is inimical to the health, welfare, or safety of either an individual in or receiving services from the facility, or the people of California. This bill would preclude that conduct from serving as the basis of a denial, suspension, or revocation of a license, or other prohibition by the department, if the alleged conduct was the subject of an arrest or criminal proceeding, unless the individual in question was denied clearance or a criminal record exemption, as specified.