Georgia Code
Article 2 - Background Checks
§ 20-1A-39. Potential Employees; Current Employees and Directors; Comprehensive Records Check Requirements; Satisfactory Determination; Liability for Hiring Ineligible Employee

History. Code 1981, § 20-1A-39 , enacted by Ga. L. 2004, p. 645, § 1; Ga. L. 2013, p. 285, § 2/HB 350; Ga. L. 2015, p. 965, § 2/HB 401; Ga. L. 2018, p. 507, § 2-5/SB 336; Ga. L. 2018, p. 1101, § 11/HB 494; Ga. L. 2019, p. 1056, § 20/SB 52.
The 2015 amendment, effective January 1, 2016, rewrote this Code section.
The 2018 amendments. —
The first 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, deleted “satisfactory” preceding “fingerprint records check” and inserted “that is satisfactory” throughout subsection (a) and in the second sentence of subsection (c); in subsection (a), in the second and third sentences, inserted “is satisfactory and that” in the middle, deleted “fingerprint records check” following “unsatisfactory” near the end of the fifth sentence and in the second sentence of subsection (c), and added the eighth sentence; in subsection (c), in the first sentence, inserted “an” near the middle, substituted “check determination” for “checks” two times in the middle, and added the exception at the end. The second 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, throughout this Code section, substituted “comprehensive” for “fingerprint” and inserted “, notwithstanding Code Section 20-1A-45”; rewrote subsection (a); deleted former subsection (b), which read: “By no later than January 1, 2017, every current employee and director of any licensed or commissioned early care and education program shall obtain either a satisfactory fingerprint records check determination or shall have had an unsatisfactory fingerprint records check determination reversed in accordance with Code Section 20-1A-43. The early care and education program shall maintain such documentation in the appropriate personnel file, which is available to the department immediately upon request. If the fingerprint records check determination is unsatisfactory, the licensed or commissioned early care and education program shall, after receiving notification of the determination, take such steps as are necessary so that such person no longer resides at the early care and education program or is no longer present at the early care and education program while children are present for care. The department shall revoke the license or commission of an early care and education program if the early care and education program fails to comply with the requirements of this Code section.”; redesignated former subsections (c) through (g) as present subsections (b) through (f), respectively; and, in subsection (b), in the first sentence, inserted “determinations” twice and inserted “determination”; deleted “suspension or” preceding “revocation” near the beginning of subsection (c); substituted “be present at a facility while children are present for care or to reside in a facility” for “reside at an early care and education program or be present at a licensed or permitted early care and education program while children are present for care” in the middle of the first sentence of subsection (e); and, in subsection (f), substituted “program that allows an employee or director about” for “program having an employee or director” in the middle and substituted “to be present at a facility while children are present for care or to reside in a facility” for “in the early care and education program” near the end. See the Code Commission note regarding the effect of these amendments.
The 2019 amendment, effective May 12, 2019, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, substituted “comprehensive records check determinations” for “comprehensive records checks determinations” in two places in the first sentence of subsection (b).
Code Commission notes.
Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2018, the amendment of portions of subsection (b) of this Code section by Ga. L. 2018, p. 507, § 2-5/SB 336, was treated as impliedly repealed and superseded by Ga. L. 2018, p. 1101, § 11/HB 494, due to irreconcilable conflict.
Law reviews.
For article on the 2018 amendment of this Code section, see 35 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 119 (2018).

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