Bill > S2625

This bill, titled the Protecting Our Servicemembers' Children from Sexual and Violent Predators Act, mandates that local educational agencies that receive certain federal funding and Department of Defense domestic dependent elementary and secondary schools implement policies requiring comprehensive criminal background checks for all school employees who have unsupervised access to students. These checks must include searches of state criminal registries, child abuse and neglect registries, Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprint records, and the National Sex Offender Registry. The bill prohibits the employment of individuals who refuse a background check, make false statements during the process, or have been convicted of serious felonies such as murder, child abuse, crimes against children, spousal abuse, rape, sexual assault, kidnapping, arson, or certain violent assaults or drug-related offenses committed within the last five years, as well as any other violent or sexual crime against a minor. It also requires periodic updates of these background checks, provides employees with copies of their results, establishes an appeal process for challenging inaccurate information, and allows for the sharing of background check results between educational agencies. The bill also permits reasonable fees to be charged for these background checks, not exceeding the actual costs.