Researcher: MK Page 1 5/19/21
OLR Bill Analysis
sHB 6417 (as amended by House "A")*
AN ACT REQUIRING BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR CERTAIN
EMPLOYEES OF YOUTH CAMPS.
SUMMARY
Starting October 1, 2022, this bill requires youth camps licensed by
the Office of Early Childhood (OEC) (see BACKGROUND) to require
prospective employees age 18 or older to submit to comprehensive
background checks if they are applying for positions that provide care
or involve unsupervised access to any child in the youth camp.
Similarly, the bill requires certain municipalities, businesses, and
nonprofit organizations operating youth athletic activities
(“operators”), starting October 1, 2022, to require prospective
employees or volunteers who are age 18 or older and applying for a
position as coach, instructor, or athletic trainer to submit to
comprehensive background checks.
The bill establishes specifications for these background checks,
including specifying who may conduct them, what databases must be
checked, the frequency of the checks, the exemptions from the
requirements; the crimes that are generally disqualifying; the required
protocols when a criminal record or certain convictions are found;
notification requirements and associated penalties for failure to report;
and record retention requirements.
*House Amendment “A” adds the provisions that pertain to youth
sports coaches, trainers, and instructors; sets the circumstances under
which a third-party provider may conduct the background check; adds
the option to search the Judicial Branch’s electronic criminal system for
convictions; exempts certain visa-holders; requires licensees to
maintain background check records and make them available to OEC
upon request; establishes protocols for the finding of a criminal record 2021HB-06417-R01-BA.DOCX
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or conviction of specified crimes; establishes a licensee’s duty to report
convictions to OEC and imposes a penalty for failure to report; and
makes other minor changes.
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2021
COMPREHENSIVE BACKGR OUND CHECKS FOR YOUTH CAMP
EMPLOYEES
Background Check Options
The bill provides two options to meet the background check
requirement. Under the first option, the background check must
include the following:
1. a criminal history records check conducted by (a) the State
Police Bureau of Identification in accordance with existing law
(see BACKGROUND) or (b) searching the electronic criminal
record system for convictions maintained on the Judicial
Department’s website matching the prospective employee's
name and birth date;
2. a check of the state child abuse registry;
3. a check of the state sex offender registry; and
4. a search of the National Sex Offender Registry public website
maintained by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Alternatively, a background check may be done by a third-party
provider of national criminal history record checks conducted through
a centralized database using the prospective employee's fingerprints.
The provider must be on the list of providers OEC publishes on its
website.
Release of Information
Under the bill, prior to conducting a child abuse registry check, (1)
the youth camps must submit to OEC a form signed by the prospective
employee authorizing the release of personal information and (2) OEC
must submit this signed form to the Department of Children and 2021HB-06417-R01-BA.DOCX
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Families (DCF). The bill requires OEC to prescribe the form.
Provisional Employment
Under the bill, prospective employees may begin working on a
provisional basis while the comprehensive background check is
pending. Their work must always be supervised by an employee who
was subjected to the comprehensive background check within the
previous five years.
Exemptions for Certain Visa Holders
The bill exempts prospective employees who hold J-1, H-1B, or R-1
visas issued by the U.S. Department of State from this background
check requirement.
Frequency of Background Checks
Under the bill, licensees must require any youth camp employees
holding a position that requires the provision of care to a child or
involves unsupervised access to a child to submit to the bill’s
comprehensive background check within five years after their hiring
date and at least once every five years after that. The bill specifies that
licensees are not prohibited from requiring such employees to submit
to a comprehensive background check more than once every five
years.
Record Retention
The bill requires licensees to maintain, and make available upon
OEC’s request, any documentation associated with a comprehensive
background check for at least five years from the date the (1)
background check was completed, if the subject of the comprehensive
background check was not hired, or (2) employment ended, if the
licensee had hired the subject of the comprehensive background check.
OEC Enforcement Powers
The bill gives the OEC commissioner the express authorization to
(1) refuse to license a person to establish, conduct, or maintain a youth
camp; (2) suspend or revoke the license; or (3) take any other action
authorized under regulation if the person who establishes, conducts, 2021HB-06417-R01-BA.DOCX
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or maintains the youth camp or an employee in a position connected
with the provision of care to a child or involving unsupervised access
to a child has been convicted in this state or any other state of certain
felonies.
This applies to a felony involving the following:
1. use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against
another person;
2. cruelty to persons;
3. injury or risk of injury to or impairing morals of children;
4. abandonment of children under age six;
5. any felony where the victim is a child under age 18;
6. sexual assault in a spousal of cohabitating relationship;
7. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th degree sexual assault;
8. 3rd degree sexual assault with a firearm; or
9. 1st degree aggravated sexual assault.
Under the bill, the OEC commissioner may also take the
enforcement actions described above if the person has a criminal
record in this state or any other state that the commissioner reasonably
believes renders the person unsuitable to establish, conduct, or
maintain or be employed by a youth camp.
Under the bill, the OEC commissioner’s refusal to issue a license
must be in accordance with the statutes that apply to post-conviction
hiring.
Notification by Licensee to OEC of Certain Criminal Convictions
The bill requires any person licensed to establish, operate, or
maintain a youth camp to notify the OEC commissioner if the licensee
or youth camp employee is convicted of any of the crimes listed above 2021HB-06417-R01-BA.DOCX
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and is employed in a position connected with the provision of care to a
child or involving unsupervised access to a child. The licensee or
employee must notify OEC immediately upon learning about the
conviction.
Penalty for Failure to Notify
Under the bill, failure to comply with the notification requirement
(1) may result in license suspension or revocation or the imposition of
any action authorized by regulation and (2) subjects the licensee to a
civil penalty of up to $100 per day for each day after the licensee
learned of the conviction, up to $4,500 total.
COMPREHENSIVE BACKGR OUND CHECKS FOR YOUT H SPORTS
COACHES, TRAINERS, AND INSTRUCTORS
This bill requires certain municipalities, businesses, and nonprofit
organizations operating youth athletic activities (“operators”), starting
October 1, 2022, to require prospective employees or volunteers who
are age 18 or older and applying for a position as coach, instructor, or
athletic trainer to submit to a comprehensive background check.
The bill applies this requirement to youth athletic activities
organized for participants age 19 and under.
Background Check Options
The bill provides two options to meet the background check
requirement. Under the first option, the background check must
include the following:
1. a criminal history records check conducted by (a) the State
Police Bureau of Identification in accordance with existing law
(see BACKGROUND) or (b) searching the electronic criminal
record system for convictions maintained on the Judicial
Department’s website matching the prospective employee's
name and birth date;
2. a check of the state child abuse registry;
3. a check of the state sex offender registry; and 2021HB-06417-R01-BA.DOCX
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4. a search of the National Sex Offender Registry public website
maintained by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Alternatively, the background check requirement can be conducted
by a third-party provider of national criminal history record checks in
accordance with the national industry background check standards
established by the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
Release of Information
For each check of the state child abuse registry conducted in
accordance with this provision, an operator must submit to DCF an
authorization for the release of personal information signed by the
prospective employee or volunteer.
Provisional Employment
The bill generally allows prospective employees and volunteers to
begin working on a provisional basis while the background check is
pending. This work must always be supervised by an employee or
volunteer who was subjected to the comprehensive background check
within the previous five years.
Frequency of Background Checks
The bill requires employees and volunteers in these positions to
submit to the same background checks at least once every five years.
It also specifies that it does not prohibit an operator from requiring
an applicant for a position as a coach, instructor, or athletic trainer to
submit to comprehensive background checks more often than once
every five years.
Exemptions
The bill exempts from the comprehensive background check
requirement the following applicants for a position as a coach,
instructor, or athletic trainer for a youth athletic activity:
1. employees or volunteers of a youth athletic activity operator in
the state or who have not been separated from employment as a
youth athletic activity coach, instructor, or athletic trainer in the 2021HB-06417-R01-BA.DOCX
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state for more than 180 days and have successfully completed
the comprehensive background check in the previous five years
or
2. intramural or interscholastic athletic coaches employed by a
local or regional board of education, so long as the board
satisfies the state and national criminal history records checks
requirements for board employees under existing law.
Criminal Record or Conviction Result
The bill establishes conditions under which operators may not
employ someone or accept them as a volunteer, youth athletic activity
coach, instructor, or athletic trainer.
Under the bill, if the comprehensive background check results in a
finding that a person who applied for the position (1) has been
convicted in this state or any other state of any of the felony crimes
listed above (see “OEC Enforcement Powers” above) or (2) has a
criminal record in this state or any other state that the operator
reasonably believes may render the person unsuitable for the position,
the operator must not employ the person or accept them as a volunteer
if it determines that he or she is not suitable for the position after
considering the following:
1. the nature of the crime and its relationship to the position for
which the person has applied,
2. information pertaining to the degree of rehabilitation of the
convicted person, and
3. the time elapsed since the conviction or release.
Definitions
Operator. By law, an “operator” is any municipality, business, or
nonprofit organization that conducts, coordinates, organizes, or
otherwise oversees any youth athletic activity. It does not include any
of these entities, whether or not compensated, that solely provide
access to, or use of, a field, court, or other recreational area. 2021HB-06417-R01-BA.DOCX
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Youth Athletic Activity. Under existing law, a youth athletic
activity is an organized athletic activity involving participants who:
1. (a) engage in, or practice or prepare for, an organized athletic
game or competition against another team, club, or entity or (b)
attend an organized athletic camp or clinic that trains, instructs,
or prepares these participants and
2. pay a fee to participate in such an organized athletic game or
competition or attend such a camp or clinic, or whose fee is
sponsored by a municipality, business, or nonprofit
organization.
It does not include any college or university athletic activity, or one
that is incidental to a nonathletic program or lesson.
Under current law, youth athletic activities participants are ages
seven through 19. The bill additionally applies its background check
provisions to youth athletic activities in which participants are under
age seven.
BACKGROUND
Youth Camps
By law, the programs that must be licensed as youth camps are any
regularly scheduled programs or organized group activities advertised
as a camp or operated only during school vacations or on weekends by
a person, partnership, corporation, association, the state, or a
municipal agency for recreational or educational purposes and
accommodating at least five children, from ages three to 16. These
children (1) may not be bona fide personal guests in the private home
of an individual and (2) must live apart from their relatives, parents, or
legal guardian at least three full or partial days per week unless a
relative or guardian is a camp employee. It does not include
classroom-based summer instructional programs, public or private
schools’ summer educational programs, licensed child care centers, or
drop-in programs for children who are at least age six administered by
a nationally chartered boys' and girls' club 2021HB-06417-R01-BA.DOCX
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Criminal History Records Checks
By law, if a criminal history records check is required by state law, it
must be requested from the State Police Bureau of Identification and
must apply to the individual identified in the request. The requesting
party must arrange for the fingerprinting of the individual or for
conducting any other method of positive identification required by the
State Police Bureau of Identification and, if a national criminal history
records check is requested, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(CGS § 29-17a).
Related Bill
sHB 6511 (File 166), favorably reported by the Committee on
Children, contains similar provisions to the requirements for certain
municipalities, businesses, and nonprofit organizations operating
youth athletic activities to require prospective employees who are age
18 or older and applying for a position as coach, instructor, or athletic
trainer to submit to a comprehensive background check.
COMMITTEE ACTION
Committee on Children
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 12 Nay 1 (03/11/2021)