TITLE 49 SOCIAL SERVICES

Section 5. Programs and Protection for Children and Youth, 49-5-1 through 49-5-281.

ARTICLE 3 EMPLOYEES' RECORDS CHECKS FOR CHILD WELFARE AGENCIES

49-5-69.1. Fingerprint and preliminary records check for foster homes; notice of results; violations; foster parents known to have criminal records; retention of fingerprints.

1. No licensed child welfare agency, as defined in subsection (a) of Code Section 49-5-12, shall place a child in a foster care home unless the foster parent or parents of the home and other adult persons that reside in the home or provide care to children placed in the home have received a satisfactory preliminary records check determination. Additionally, no child shall continue to be placed in such foster care home unless the foster parent or parents also subsequently receive a satisfactory fingerprint records check determination. A child welfare agency or any applicant for a license for such an agency shall be required to submit to the department a preliminary records check application and a records check application for the foster parent or parents of any foster care home used by the agency and a preliminary records check application for any other adult persons that reside in the home or provide care to children placed in the home. In lieu of such applications, the agency or license applicant may submit evidence, satisfactory to the department, that within the immediately preceding 12 months such foster parent or parents or other adult persons have received a satisfactory fingerprint records check determination or a satisfactory preliminary records check determination.
2. After receiving or obtaining the fingerprint records check determinations or the preliminary records check determinations, the department shall notify in writing the agency or license applicant as to each person for whom an application was received regarding whether the department's determinations were satisfactory or unsatisfactory. If any such determinations are unsatisfactory, such homes shall not be used by the child welfare agency as foster care homes.
3. The department shall have the authority to take any of the actions enumerated in subsection (c) of Code Section 49-2-17 if a licensed child welfare agency or an applicant for such a license violates any provision of this Code section.
4. An executive director of a child welfare agency that uses a foster care home with a foster parent or parents or other adult persons referenced in this Code section whom the executive director knows or should reasonably know to have a criminal record shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
5. In addition to any other requirement established by law, the submission of fingerprints shall be a prerequisite to the issuance of a license or authorization for the operation of a foster home or to serve as foster parents as provided in this article. Such fingerprints shall be used for the purposes of fingerprint checks by the Georgia Crime Information Center and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
6. If the department is participating in the program described in subparagraph (a)(1)(F) of Code Section 35-3-33, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall be authorized to retain fingerprints obtained pursuant to this Code section for such program and the department shall notify the individual whose fingerprints were taken of the parameters of such retention. The time frames set forth in this Code section shall not apply when fingerprints have been retained by the department due to its participation in the program described in subparagraph (a)(1)(F) of Code Section 35-3-33.

(Code 1981, §49-5-69.1, enacted by Ga. L. 1993, p. 757, § 2; Ga. L. 1994, p. 409, § 2; Ga. L. 1999, p. 539, § 10; Ga. L. 2009, p. 453, § 2-24/HB 228; Ga. L. 2018, p. 507, § 2-18/SB 336.)

The 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, added subsection (f).