OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS
Legislative Office Building, Room 5200
Hartford, CT 06106 (860) 240-0200
http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa
sHB-6511
AN ACT REQUIRING BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR YOUTH
SPORTS COACHES, TRAINERS AND INSTRUCTORS.
Primary Analyst: ME 3/25/21
Contributing Analyst(s): RDP, DD, AN, ES
Reviewer: PR
OFA Fiscal Note
State Impact:
Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 22 $ FY 23 $
Emergency Services and Public
Protection, Dept.
Applicant
Fingerprint Card
Submission
Account -
Potential Revenue
Gain
None See Below
Resources of the General Fund GF - Potential
Revenue Gain
None See Below
Note: GF=General Fund
Municipal Impact:
Municipalities Effect FY 22 $ FY 23 $
Various Municipalities STATE
MANDATE
1
- Potential
Cost
None See Below
Explanation
The bill requires certain municipalities and other youth athletic
activity operators to conduct comprehensive background checks on
certain prospective employees resulting in a potential revenue gain to
the state and a potential cost to municipalities.
1
State mandate is defined in Sec. 2-32b(2) of the Connecticut General Statutes, "state
mandate" means any state initiated constitutional, statutory or executive action that
requires a local government to establish, expand or modify its activities in such a
way as to necessitate additional expenditures from local revenues. 2021HB-06511-R000166-FN.DOCX Page 2 of 2
The Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection
(DESPP) conducts state background checks for $75 per person and to
the extent additional background checks are requested there is a
potential revenue gain to the state. The bill also requires a federal
background check which DESPP conducts for a fee of $13.25 but remits
the fee to the federal government resulting in no fiscal impact to the
state. Both state and federal background checks require fingerprinting,
which DESPP conducts for $15 per person resulting in a potential
revenue gain to the Applicant Fingerprint Card Submission Account
2
.
There is a cost to municipalities that will vary based on 1) the
number of background checks they conduct, and 2) the vendor they
use to conduct them. A town that conducts these background checks
via DESPP would incur costs of $75 per person for the state criminal
background check, $13.25 per person for the Federal criminal
background check, and $15 per person for fingerprinting. A town that
conducts background checks via a third-party vendor could incur costs
of $18 to $20 per person for both.
A municipality could at least partially offset this cost if it chose to
increase any fees it charges for participation in youth athletic activities.
The Department of Children and Families (DCF) is in the process of
implementing an automated Child Abuse and Neglect Registry
system, which will be in place before the bill becomes effective,
therefore, no fiscal impact to the agency is anticipated from the bill.
DCF does not charge a fee for a check of the Registry.
The Out Years
The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would
continue into the future subject to the number of background checks
and inflation.
2
Funds in the Applicant Fingerprint Card Submission Account are used for IT
support and maintenance for the fingerprinting systems.