Senate Passes HB 204 – Background Checks for Private School and Youth Camp Employees

Sponsored by Representative Kimberly Williams, House Bill 204 removes the exemption for private schools and youth camps that allowed them to perform background checks on their employees by only using a name, rather than their finger prints, or to not do background checks at all for contractors, or volunteers.

The House earlier passed the bill unanimously in April, and the Senate joined in May.

The bill provides a means by which private schools and youth camps operated by private schools can obtain criminal background checks for potential employees and volunteers under the auspices of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 and authorizes the SBI and DELJIS to provide Delaware criminal history information subsequent to the original background check without the requirement of a new criminal background check.

This bill also clarifies that the Department of Education is a child serving entity and its employees are obligated to undergo background checks. It also authorizes the Superintendent of State Police to promulgate regulations that would permit, in limited circumstances, re-use of a criminal background check.

Since the bill has passed both Houses of the General Assembly, it is ready for the Governor to sign.

House Bill 204 Sponsors	Yes Votes	No Votes
K.Williams, Baumbach, Dorsey Walker, Briggs King, Yearick	House Passed 41-0. Baumbach Bennett Bentz Bolden Friel Bush Carson Chukwuocha Cooke Dorsey-Walker Griffith Heffernan K.Johnson K.Williams Kowalko Lambert Longhurst Lynn Matthews Minor-Brown Mitchell Morrison Osienski S.Moore Schwartzkopf Wilson-Anton  Briggs King Collins D.Short Dukes Gray Hensley M.Smith Morris Postles Ramone Shupe Smyk Spiegelman Vanderwende Yearick
Poore, Gay, Mantzavinos, Sokola, Walsh, Pettyjohn	Senate Passed 19-0-2. Brown Ennis Gay Hansen Lockman Mantzavinos Paradee Pinkney Poore S.McBride Sokola Sturgeon Townsend Walsh Bonini Hocker Lopez Pettyjohn Richardson	Absent: Wilson, Lawson
Current Status:	Sent to the Governor