Ohio Revised Code
Chapter 2151 | Juvenile Court
Section 2151.86 | Criminal Records Check.

Effective: October 17, 2019
Latest Legislation: House Bill 166 - 133rd General Assembly
(A)(1) The appointing or hiring officer of any entity that appoints or employs any person responsible for a child's care in out-of-home care shall request the superintendent of BCII to conduct a criminal records check with respect to any person who is under final consideration for appointment or employment as a person responsible for a child's care in out-of-home care. The request shall be made at the time of initial application for appointment or employment and every four years thereafter. If the out-of-home care entity is a public school, educational service center, or chartered nonpublic school, then section 3319.39 of the Revised Code shall apply instead. If the out-of-home care entity is a child day-care center, type A family day-care home, type B family day-care home, certified in-home aide, or child day camp, then section 5104.013 of the Revised Code shall apply instead.
(2) At the times specified in this division, the administrative director of an agency, or attorney, who arranges an adoption for a prospective adoptive parent shall request the superintendent of BCII to conduct a criminal records check with respect to that prospective adoptive parent and a criminal records check with respect to all persons eighteen years of age or older who reside with the prospective adoptive parent. The administrative director or attorney shall request a criminal records check pursuant to this division at the time of the initial home study, every four years after the initial home study at the time of an update, and at the time that an adoptive home study is completed as a new home study.
(3) Before a recommending agency submits a recommendation to the department of job and family services on whether the department should issue a certificate to a foster home under section 5103.03 of the Revised Code, and every four years thereafter prior to a recertification under that section, the administrative director of the agency shall request that the superintendent of BCII conduct a criminal records check with respect to the prospective foster caregiver and a criminal records check with respect to all other persons eighteen years of age or older who reside with the foster caregiver.
(B)(1) When the appointing or hiring officer requests, at the time of initial application for appointment or employment, a criminal records check for a person subject to division (A)(1) of this section, the officer shall request that the superintendent of BCII obtain information from the federal bureau of investigation as part of the criminal records check, including fingerprint-based checks of national crime information databases as described in 42 U.S.C. 671, for the person subject to the criminal records check. In all other cases in which the appointing or hiring officer requests a criminal records check for a person pursuant to division (A)(1) of this section, the officer may request that the superintendent of BCII obtain information from the federal bureau of investigation as part of the criminal records check, including fingerprint-based checks of national crime information databases as described in 42 U.S.C. 671, for the person subject to the criminal records check.
When the administrative director of an agency, or attorney, who arranges an adoption for a prospective parent requests, at the time of the initial home study, a criminal records check for a person pursuant to division (A)(2) of this section, the administrative director or attorney shall request that the superintendent of BCII obtain information from the federal bureau of investigation as part of the criminal records check, including fingerprint-based checks of national crime information databases as described in 42 U.S.C. 671, for the person subject to the criminal records check. In all other cases in which the administrative director of an agency, or attorney, who arranges an adoption for a prospective parent requests a criminal records check for a person pursuant to division (A)(2) of this section, the administrative director or attorney may request that the superintendent of BCII include information from the federal bureau of investigation in the criminal records check, including fingerprint-based checks of national crime information databases as described in 42 U.S.C. 671.
When the administrative director of a recommending agency requests, before submitting a recommendation to the department of job and family services on whether the department should issue a certificate to a foster home under section 5103.03 of the Revised Code, a criminal records check for a person pursuant to division (A)(3) of this section, the administrative director shall request that the superintendent of BCII obtain information from the federal bureau of investigation as part of a criminal records check, including fingerprint-based checks of national crime information databases as described in 42 U.S.C. 671, for the person subject to the criminal records check. In all other cases in which the administrative director of a recommending agency requests a criminal records check for a person pursuant to division (A)(3) of this section, the administrative director may request that the superintendent of BCII include information from the federal bureau of investigation in the criminal records check, including fingerprint-based checks of national crime information databases as described in 42 U.S.C. 671.
Prior to a hearing on a final decree of adoption or interlocutory order of adoption by a probate court, the administrative director of an agency, or an attorney, who arranges an adoption for a prospective parent shall provide to the clerk of the probate court either of the following:
(a) Any information received pursuant to a request made under this division from the superintendent of BCII or the federal bureau of investigation as part of the criminal records check, including fingerprint-based checks of national crime information databases as described in 42 U.S.C. 671, for the person subject to the criminal records check;
(b) Written notification that the person subject to a criminal records check pursuant to this division failed upon request to provide the information necessary to complete the form or failed to provide impressions of the person's fingerprints as required under division (B)(2) of this section.
(2) An appointing or hiring officer, administrative director, or attorney required by division (A) of this section to request a criminal records check shall provide to each person subject to a criminal records check a copy of the form prescribed pursuant to division (C)(1) of section 109.572 of the Revised Code and a standard impression sheet to obtain fingerprint impressions prescribed pursuant to division (C)(2) of section 109.572 of the Revised Code, obtain the completed form and impression sheet from the person, and forward the completed form and impression sheet to the superintendent of BCII at the time the criminal records check is requested.
Any person subject to a criminal records check who receives pursuant to this division a copy of the form prescribed pursuant to division (C)(1) of section 109.572 of the Revised Code and a copy of an impression sheet prescribed pursuant to division (C)(2) of that section and who is requested to complete the form and provide a set of fingerprint impressions shall complete the form or provide all the information necessary to complete the form and shall provide the impression sheet with the impressions of the person's fingerprints. If a person subject to a criminal records check, upon request, fails to provide the information necessary to complete the form or fails to provide impressions of the person's fingerprints, the appointing or hiring officer shall not appoint or employ the person as a person responsible for a child's care in out-of-home care, a probate court may not issue a final decree of adoption or an interlocutory order of adoption making the person an adoptive parent, and the department of job and family services shall not issue a certificate authorizing the prospective foster caregiver to operate a foster home.
(C)(1) No appointing or hiring officer shall appoint or employ a person as a person responsible for a child's care in out-of-home care, the department of job and family services shall not issue a certificate under section 5103.03 of the Revised Code authorizing a prospective foster caregiver to operate a foster home, and no probate court shall issue a final decree of adoption or an interlocutory order of adoption making a person an adoptive parent if the person or, in the case of a prospective foster caregiver or prospective adoptive parent, any person eighteen years of age or older who resides with the prospective foster caregiver or prospective adoptive parent previously has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to any of the violations described in division (A)(4) of section 109.572 of the Revised Code, unless the person meets rehabilitation standards established in rules adopted under division (F) of this section.
(2) Prior to certification or recertification under section 5103.03 of the Revised Code, the prospective foster caregiver subject to a criminal records check under division (A)(3) of this section shall notify the recommending agency of the revocation of any foster home license, certificate, or other similar authorization in another state occurring within the five years prior to the date of application to become a foster caregiver in this state. The failure of a prospective foster caregiver to notify the recommending agency of any revocation of that type in another state that occurred within that five-year period shall be grounds for denial of the person's foster home application or the revocation of the person's foster home certification, whichever is applicable. If a person has had a revocation in another state within the five years prior to the date of the application, the department of job and family services shall not issue a foster home certificate to the prospective foster caregiver.
(D) The appointing or hiring officer, administrative director, or attorney shall pay to the bureau of criminal identification and investigation the fee prescribed pursuant to division (C)(3) of section 109.572 of the Revised Code for each criminal records check conducted in accordance with that section upon a request pursuant to division (A) of this section. The officer, director, or attorney may charge the person subject to the criminal records check a fee for the costs the officer, director, or attorney incurs in obtaining the criminal records check. A fee charged under this division shall not exceed the amount of fees the officer, director, or attorney pays for the criminal records check. If a fee is charged under this division, the officer, director, or attorney shall notify the person who is the applicant at the time of the person's initial application for appointment or employment, an adoption to be arranged, or a certificate to operate a foster home of the amount of the fee and that, unless the fee is paid, the person who is the applicant will not be considered for appointment or employment or as an adoptive parent or foster caregiver.
(E) The report of any criminal records check conducted by the bureau of criminal identification and investigation in accordance with section 109.572 of the Revised Code and pursuant to a request made under division (A) of this section is not a public record for the purposes of section 149.43 of the Revised Code and shall not be made available to any person other than the following:
(1) The person who is the subject of the criminal records check or the person's representative;
(2) The appointing or hiring officer, administrative director, or attorney requesting the criminal records check or the officer's, director's, or attorney's representative;
(3) The department of job and family services, a county department of job and family services, or a public children services agency;
(4) Any court, hearing officer, or other necessary individual involved in a case dealing with the denial of employment, a final decree of adoption or interlocutory order of adoption, or a foster home certificate.
(F) The director of job and family services shall adopt rules in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code to implement this section. The rules shall include rehabilitation standards a person who has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to an offense listed in division (A)(4) of section 109.572 of the Revised Code must meet for an appointing or hiring officer to appoint or employ the person as a person responsible for a child's care in out-of-home care, a probate court to issue a final decree of adoption or interlocutory order of adoption making the person an adoptive parent, or the department to issue a certificate authorizing the prospective foster caregiver to operate a foster home or not revoke a foster home certificate for a violation specified in section 5103.0328 of the Revised Code.
(G) An appointing or hiring officer, administrative director, or attorney required by division (A) of this section to request a criminal records check shall inform each person who is the applicant, at the time of the person's initial application for appointment or employment, an adoption to be arranged, or a foster home certificate, that the person subject to the criminal records check is required to provide a set of impressions of the person's fingerprints and that a criminal records check is required to be conducted and satisfactorily completed in accordance with section 109.572 of the Revised Code.
(H) As used in this section:
(1) "Children's hospital" means any of the following:
(a) A hospital registered under section 3701.07 of the Revised Code that provides general pediatric medical and surgical care, and in which at least seventy-five per cent of annual inpatient discharges for the preceding two calendar years were individuals less than eighteen years of age;
(b) A distinct portion of a hospital registered under section 3701.07 of the Revised Code that provides general pediatric medical and surgical care, has a total of at least one hundred fifty registered pediatric special care and pediatric acute care beds, and in which at least seventy-five per cent of annual inpatient discharges for the preceding two calendar years were individuals less than eighteen years of age;
(c) A distinct portion of a hospital, if the hospital is registered under section 3701.07 of the Revised Code as a children's hospital and the children's hospital meets all the requirements of division (H)(1)(a) of this section.
(2) "Criminal records check" has the same meaning as in section 109.572 of the Revised Code.
(3) "Person responsible for a child's care in out-of-home care" has the same meaning as in section 2151.011 of the Revised Code, except that it does not include a prospective employee of the department of youth services or a person responsible for a child's care in a hospital or medical clinic other than a children's hospital.
(4) "Person subject to a criminal records check" means the following:
(a) A person who is under final consideration for appointment or employment as a person responsible for a child's care in out-of-home care;
(b) A prospective or current adoptive parent;
(c) A prospective or current foster caregiver;
(d) A person eighteen years old or older who resides with a prospective or current foster caregiver or a prospective or current adoptive parent.
(5) "Recommending agency" means a public children services agency, private child placing agency, or private noncustodial agency to which the department of job and family services has delegated a duty to inspect and approve foster homes.
(6) "Superintendent of BCII" means the superintendent of the bureau of criminal identification and investigation.

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