Delaware Code Title 16 Sec. 5138 – Criminal background checks
(a) The Department shall not hire or employ an applicant for any position at the Delaware Psychiatric Center without first obtaining a report of the person’s criminal history.
Terms Used In Delaware Code Title 16 Sec. 5138
- Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
- Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
- Department: means the Department of Health and Social Services except that Department means the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families in the context of a treatment facility serving minors. See Delaware Code Title 16 Sec. 5181
- State: means the State of Delaware; and when applied to different parts of the United States, it includes the District of Columbia and the several territories and possessions of the United States. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
(b) The Department shall promulgate regulations establishing the criteria for unsuitability for employment, including the types of criminal convictions which shall automatically disqualify a person from working at the Delaware Psychiatric Center and, as to other criminal convictions, the criteria for determining whether a particular individual is unsuitable for employment at the Delaware Psychiatric Center.
(c) Conditional hire. — The requirements of subsection (a) of this section may be suspended for 60 days if the employer wishes to employ the applicant on a conditional basis. Before an employer may offer conditional employment, the employer must receive verification that the applicant has been fingerprinted by the SBI for purposes of the criminal history. No criminal history will be issued if the applicant fails to provide information to the Department regarding the status or disposition of an arrest within 45 days from the date of notice from the Department of an open criminal charge.
(d) The Department shall immediately terminate the employment any Delaware Psychiatric Center employee who is, or has been, convicted of any disqualifying crime upon notification of such conviction.
(e) The criminal history information provided to the employer, is strictly confidential. It may be used solely to determine the suitability of an applicant for employment or continued employment at the Delaware Psychiatric Center.
(f) Before an applicant is permitted to be employed at the Delaware Psychiatric Center, the applicant must, upon request:
(1) Provide accurate information sufficient to get a criminal history;
(2) Execute a full release to enable the employer to secure a criminal history and to periodically update the criminal history while employed;
(g) An applicant who fails to comply with subsection (f) of this section is subject to a civil penalty of not less than $1,000 nor more than $5,000 for each violation.
(h) All grandfathered employees must be fingerprinted by the SBI within 120 days from the date of BCC (see § 7972(a) of Title 29) implementation. SBI:
(1) Shall use the fingerprints to establish the grandfathered employee’s identity and to assign an SBI identification number for the sole purpose of enabling the person’s criminal record to be monitored for new arrests while the grandfathered employee continues to work at a long-term care facility, as defined in § 1102 of this title.
(2) Shall not run a state or federal background check of the grandfathered employee, unless the grandfathered employee is also an applicant as defined in § 5137(b) of this title above;
(3) Shall comply with § 1911 of Title 11.
77 Del. Laws, c. 292, § ?1; 70 Del. Laws, c. 186, § ?1; 78 Del. Laws, c. 303, § ?4; 81 Del. Laws, c. 207, § 4;