Iowa Code
Chapter 135H - PSYCHIATRIC MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS FOR CHILDREN
Section 135H.7 - Personnel.

135H.7 Personnel.
1. A person shall not be allowed to provide services in a psychiatric institution if the person has a disease which is transmissible to other persons through required contact in the workplace, which presents a significant risk of infecting other persons, which presents a substantial possibility of harming other persons, or for which no reasonable accommodation can eliminate the risk of infecting other persons.
2. a. If a person is being considered for licensure under this chapter, or for employment involving direct responsibility for a child or with access to a child when the child is alone, by a licensed psychiatric institution, or if a person will reside in a facility utilized by a licensee, and if the person has been convicted of a crime or has a record of founded child abuse, the department of human services and the licensee, for an employee of the licensee, shall perform an evaluation to determine whether the crime or founded child abuse warrants prohibition of licensure, employment, or residence in the facility. The department of human services shall conduct criminal and child abuse record checks in this state and may conduct these checks in other states. The evaluation shall be performed in accordance with procedures adopted for this purpose by the department of human services.
b. If the department of human services determines that a person has committed a crime or has a record of founded child abuse and is licensed, employed by a psychiatric institution licensed under this chapter, or resides in a licensed facility, the department shall notify the program that an evaluation will be conducted to determine whether prohibition of the person’s licensure, employment, or residence is warranted.
c. In an evaluation, the department of human services and the licensee for an employee of the licensee shall consider the nature and seriousness of the crime or founded child abuse in relation to the position sought or held, the time elapsed since the commission of the crime or founded child abuse, the circumstances under which the crime or founded child abuse was committed, the degree of rehabilitation, the likelihood that the person will commit the crime or founded child abuse again, and the number of crimes or founded child abuses committed by the person involved. The department may permit a person who is evaluated to be licensed, employed, or to reside, or to continue to be licensed, employed, or to reside in a licensed facility, if the person complies with the department’s conditions relating to the person’s licensure, employment, or residence, which may include completion of additional training. For an employee of a licensee, these conditional requirements shall be developed with the licensee. The department of human services has final authority in determining whether prohibition of the person’s licensure, employment, or residence is warranted and in developing any conditional requirements under this paragraph.
3. If the department of human services determines that the person has committed a crime or has a record of founded child abuse which warrants prohibition of licensure, employment, or residence, the person shall not be licensed under this chapter to operate a psychiatric institution and shall not be employed by a psychiatric institution or reside in a facility licensed under this chapter.
4. In addition to the record checks required under subsection 2, the department of human services may conduct dependent adult abuse record checks in this state and may conduct these checks in other states, on a random basis. The provisions of subsections 2 and 3, relative to an evaluation following a determination that a person has been convicted of a crime or has a record of founded child abuse, shall also apply to a random dependent adult abuse record check conducted under this subsection.
5. Beginning July 1, 1994, a licensee shall inform all new applicants for employment of the possibility of the performance of a record check and shall obtain, from the applicant, a signed acknowledgment of the receipt of the information.
6. On or after July 1, 1994, a licensee shall include the following inquiry in an application for employment:
Do you have a record of founded child or dependent adult abuse or have you ever been convicted of a crime, in this state or any other state?
89 Acts, ch 283, §8; 90 Acts, ch 1221, §2; 91 Acts, ch 138, §2; 92 Acts, ch 1163, §35; 94 Acts, ch 1130, §13

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