SPONSOR: Steinmeyer
This bill establishes the "Child Protection Through Nonprofit Integrity Act".
The bill defines "child-serving organization", "covered individual", and "disqualified offender" and prohibits any disqualified offender from forming, organizing, operating, managing, advising, volunteering with, working for, contracting with, or otherwise participating in a child-serving organization in any capacity. No child-serving organization will employ, appoint, elect, contract with, or permit the participation of any disqualified offender as a covered individual within the context of the bill.
This bill requires all child-serving organizations, upon registration with the Secretary of State and annually thereafter, to certify under penalty of perjury that:
(1) No covered individual is a disqualified offender; and
(2) The child-serving organization has conducted a registry check of all covered individuals through the Missouri sex offender registry.
The Secretary of State must reject any filing, registration, or renewal that does not contain the above information, and knowingly submitting a false certification is a class E felony.
A disqualified offender who violates the provisions of this bill is guilty of a class D felony for a first offense and a class C felony for any subsequent offense.
Any person in authority within a child-serving organization who knowingly permits a disqualified offender from participating in the child-serving organization in violation of the provisions of this bill is guilty of a class E felony and would be prohibited from serving in certain capacities in any child-serving organization for a period of ten years.
The Attorney General has concurrent jurisdiction to investigation violations of these provisions. Additionally, any child-serving organization found to have knowingly violated these provisions will be ineligible for any state grant, tax credit, or public funding for a period of five years following the finding of the violation.
This bill contains an emergency clause.
Statutes affected: