BILL NUMBER: S2123
SPONSOR: MARTINEZ
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to background checks and
fingerprinting; and to amend the social services law, in relation to
statewide central registry clearances by construction contractors
 
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this bill is to require background checks for
construction contractors and their employees who service schools and
daycares.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Amends subdivision 3 of section 1125 of the education law to
include anyone receiving compensation from school construction contrac-
tors as school employees.
Section 2. Amends paragraph (a) of subdivision 30 of section 305 of the
education law to require construction contractors and their employees
who work on school projects to be fingerprinted; and requires the
commissioner to create or expand its internet based systems to make
results of fingerprint scans available electronically to construction
contractors.
Section 3. Amends paragraph (b) of subdivision 30 of section 305 of the
education law to require the commissioner to provide a form to
construction contractors who elect to fingerprint prospective employees
in order to gain clearance to work in schools.
Section 4. Amends paragraph (d) of subdivision 30 of section 305 of the
education law to require the commissioner to provide a fingerprinting
form to construction contractors who offer conditional or emergency
conditional appointment to prospective employees in order to gain clear-
ance to work in schools.
Section 5. Amends subdivision 31 of section 305 of the education law to
require school construction contractors to have a designated education
official.
Section 6. Amends subdivision 1 of section 3035 of the education law to
require background checks on construction contracts and their prospec-
tive employees be performed prior to the commissioner awarding a
contract.
Section 7. Amends subdivision 3 of section 3035 of the education law to
require the commissioner to notify construction contractors when
prospective employees have received clearance for access to a project
via an internet based system; this section also provides that employees
do not need to resubmit fingerprints if they are already on file.
Section 8. Amends section 1125 of the education law by adding subdivi-
sion 11 to define a construction contractor.
Section 9. Amends Subdivision 3 of section 424-a of the social services
law to include construction contractors in the definition of a provider
or provider agency.
Section 10. Amends paragraph (a) of subdivision 2 of section 390-a of
the social services law to require construction contractors and their
employees who service child day care centers, school-age child care
programs, family day cares, group family day cares, head start day care
centers, or school-age child care programs to have completed background
checks; and provides when construction contractors properly perform
background checks these entities do not need to perform checks itself.
Section 11. Is the enacting clause.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Most individuals strongly agree that background checks are necessary for
individuals who have frequent interactions with children. In current NYS
law, teachers, teachers' aides, cafeteria workers and bus drivers all
receive background checks before hiring. However, construction contrac-
tors and their employees who provide services to schools and daycare are
not.
This bill seeks to require background checks of construction contrac-
tors. These individuals will likely spend hours each day within school
facilities amongst hundreds of minors. In order to protect these chil-
dren, we need to ensure that every individual has gone through the
appropriate background checks and fingerprints.
Importantly, under this legislation, the construction contractors will
be required to run the background checks themselves rather than relying
on individual school districts to keep up with this administrative
responsibility. These background checks will be connected via an Inter-
net based web portal created by the department.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately; provided however that the amend-
ments to section 1125 of the education law made by section one of this
act shall take effect on the same date and in the same manner as chapter
363 of the laws of 2018, takes effect.

Statutes affected:
S2123: 1125 education law, 1125(3) education law, 305 education law, 305(30) education law, 305(31) education law, 3035 education law, 3035(1) education law, 3035(3) education law, 424-a social services law, 424-a(3) social services law, 390-a social services law, 390-a(2) social services law