(a)  The director is authorized and directed to establish a program for the licensure of adult daycare programs. “Adult daycare program” shall mean a comprehensive, nonresidential program designed to address the biological, psychological, and social needs of adults through individual plans of care that incorporate, as needed, a variety of health, social, and related support services in a protective setting. The director is further authorized to promulgate regulations as he or she deems necessary to implement these provisions.

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(b)  Any person seeking employment in any adult daycare facility licensed herein and having routine contact with an adult daycare client, or having access to such a client’s belongings or funds, shall undergo a national criminal records check that shall include fingerprints submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) by the bureau of criminal identification of the department of attorney general. The national criminal records check shall be processed prior to, or within one week of, employment. All persons who, as of September 30, 2014, are already employed by an adult daycare facility and all persons who, as of such date, already provide services under this section shall be exempted from the requirements of this section for purposes of their current employment only.

(1)  The director may, by rule, identify those positions requiring national criminal records checks. The employee, through the employer, shall apply to the bureau of criminal identification of the department of attorney general for a national criminal records check. Upon the discovery of any disqualifying information as defined in § 23-1-52(c), and in accordance with rules promulgated by the director, the bureau of criminal identification of the department of attorney general shall inform the applicant, in writing, of the nature of the disqualifying information; and, without disclosing the nature of the disqualifying information, shall notify the employer, in writing, that disqualifying information has been discovered.

(2)  An employee against whom disqualifying information has been found may provide a copy of the national criminal records check to the employer. The employer shall make a judgment regarding the continued employment of the employee.

(3)  In those situations in which no disqualifying information has been found, the bureau of criminal identification of the department of attorney general shall inform the applicant and the employer, in writing, of this fact.

(4)  The employer shall maintain on file, subject to inspection by the department of health, evidence that statewide criminal records checks have been initiated on all employees seeking employment between January 1, 2008, and September 30, 2014, and the results of the checks. The employer shall maintain on file, subject to inspection by the department, evidence that national criminal records checks have been initiated on all employees seeking employment on or after October 1, 2014, and the results of those checks. Failure to maintain that evidence may be grounds to revoke the license or registration of the employer.

(5)  The employee shall be responsible for the cost of conducting the national criminal records check through the bureau of criminal identification of the department of attorney general.

(c)  Information produced by a national criminal records check pertaining to conviction for the following crimes will result in a letter to the employee and employer disqualifying the applicant from employment: murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, first-degree sexual assault, second-degree sexual assault, third-degree sexual assault, assault on persons sixty (60) years of age or older, assault with intent to commit specified felonies (murder, robbery, rape, burglary, or the abominable and detestable crimes against nature), felony assault, patient abuse, neglect or mistreatment of patients, burglary, first-degree arson, robbery, felony drug offenses, felony obtaining money under false pretenses, felony embezzlement, abuse, neglect and/or exploitation of adults with severe impairments, exploitation of elders, felony larceny, or felony banking law violations, or a crime under section 1128(a) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7(a)). An employee against whom disqualifying information has been found may provide a copy of the national criminal records check to the employer who shall make a judgment regarding the continued employment of the employee. For purposes of this subsection, “conviction” means, in addition to judgments of conviction entered by a court subsequent to a finding of guilty or a plea of guilty, those instances where the defendant has entered a plea of nolo contendere and has received a sentence of probation and those instances where a defendant has entered into a deferred sentence agreement with the attorney general.