Nebraska Revised Statute 71-1912.01

Chapter 71

71-1912.01.

Child care staff member; national criminal history record information check; required, when; federal Child Care Subsidy program; eligibility to participate.

(1) For purposes of this section, child care staff member means an individual who is not related to all of the children for whom child care services are provided and:

(a) Who is employed for compensation by a child care provider not required to be licensed under the Child Care Licensing Act, including contract employees or self-employed individuals;

(b) Whose activities involve the care or supervision of children for a child care provider or unsupervised access to children who are cared for or supervised by a child care provider; or

(c) Who is residing in a family child care home and who is eighteen years of age or older.

(2) Beginning on November 14, 2020, an individual who is not required to be licensed under the Child Care Licensing Act but seeks to participate as a provider in the federal Child Care Subsidy program shall submit a request for a national criminal history record information check for each child care staff member, including a prospective child care staff member of the child care provider, (a) prior to the child care provider being approved to participate as a child care provider in the federal Child Care Subsidy program, except as otherwise permitted under 45 C.F.R. 98.43, as such regulation existed on January 1, 2020, or (b) prior to residing in a family child care home. A child care staff member who was a provider in the federal Child Care Subsidy program prior to November 14, 2020, or who resided in a family child care home prior to November 14, 2020, shall submit to a national criminal history record information check by October 1, 2021, unless the child care staff member ceases to be a child care staff member prior to such date. The child care staff member or the child care provider seeking to participate in the subsidy program shall pay the cost of such national criminal history record information check. A person who undergoes a national criminal history record information check to obtain a license under the Child Care Licensing Act or work as a child care staff member and is in good standing with the department shall not be required to undergo an additional national criminal history record information check to become a child care provider in the federal Child Care Subsidy program if the person has not been separated from employment from a child care provider within the state for a period of not more than one hundred eighty consecutive days.

(3) Any individual, entity, or provider shall be ineligible to participate in the federal Child Care Subsidy program if such individual, entity, or provider:

(a) Refuses to consent to the national criminal history record information check described in this section;

(b) Knowingly makes a materially false statement in connection with the national criminal history record information check described in this section;

(c) Is registered, or required to be registered, on a state sex offender registry or repository or the National Sex Offender Registry; or

(d) Has been convicted of a crime of violence, a crime of moral turpitude, or a crime of dishonesty.