What's happening
This bill requires school districts to fingerprint and background check prospective volunteers before they begin work, including sex offender registry checks.
Why it matters
Expands fingerprinting and background checks to include volunteers. The bill extends mandatory fingerprinting and criminal history checks—previously required only for employees—to anyone volunteering in schools, meaning more adults interacting with students will be screened.
Sex offender registry verification is now mandatory. Before any volunteer can begin working at a school, the district must certify they've checked state sex offender registries, aiming to block registered offenders from unsupervised contact with students.
School districts face new administrative responsibilities. Districts must submit sworn forms to the state confirming they have completed these checks for every prospective volunteer, increasing both paperwork and accountability.
Potential impact on volunteer participation. The added screening could discourage some individuals from volunteering due to privacy, cost, or procedural barriers, potentially affecting school programs that rely on volunteer support.
Albany, before your first meeting.
Every bill that moved yesterday, summarized in a sentence and ranked by impact. The Albany Scorecard follows on Sundays.
Free. Unsubscribe in one click. Want alerts on specific bills? Create an account.
Who cares
Headline styles
Fingerprint Checks for School Volunteers
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to education
- Referred to education
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
2714
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 23, 2017
Introduced by M. of A. M. G. MILLER -- read once and referred to the Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to requiring school districts to subject prospective volunteers to fingerprinting and background checks prior to commencing work at such school district
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 3035 of the education law, as amended by chapter 630 of the laws of 2006, is amended to read as follows:
1. (a) The commissioner shall submit to the division of criminal justice services two sets of fingerprints of prospective employees as defined in subdivision three of section eleven hundred twenty-five of this chapter or prospective volunteers as defined in subdivision four of section eleven hundred twenty-five of this chapter received from a school district, charter school or board of cooperative educational services and of prospective employees or prospective volunteers received from nonpublic and private elementary and secondary schools pursuant to title two of this chapter, and the division of criminal justice services processing fee imposed pursuant to subdivision eight-a of section eight hundred thirty-seven of the executive law and any fee imposed by the federal bureau of investigation. The division of criminal justice services and the federal bureau of investigation shall forward such criminal history record to the commissioner in a timely manner. For the purposes of this section, the term "criminal history record" shall mean a record of all convictions of crimes and any pending criminal charges maintained on an individual by the division of criminal justice services and the federal bureau of investigation. All such criminal history records sent to the commissioner pursuant to this subdivision shall be confidential pursuant to the applicable federal and state laws, rules
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02718-01-7
A. 2714 2
and regulations, and shall not be published or in any way disclosed to persons other than the commissioner, unless otherwise authorized by law.
(b) The commissioner shall require every school district, charter school or board of cooperative educational services to submit a form, which shall be prescribed and furnished by the commissioner, which shall include a sworn statement certifying that such school district, charter school or board of cooperative educational services confirmed that such prospective volunteer is not listed on the state sex offender registry pursuant to article six-C of the correction law prior to the day such volunteer commences work at such school district, charter school or board of cooperative educational services.
§ 2. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding the date on which it shall have become a law.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.