Committee considers streamlining background checks for home‑care workers; supporters cite client safety and workforce continuity

House Bill 1395, intended to streamline the background check process for long‑term care workers, drew support from caregivers, unions and agency providers and prompted questions from disability advocates about the two‑year fingerprint requirement.

Staff member Elizabeth Allison summarized the current system and the proposed changes: “A background check can be a name and date of birth check, a fingerprint based background check, or both,” she said, and described the bill’s key provisions: employers may not conduct a CCS review if one has already been done by the same employer for a non‑automatically disqualifying offense, if a certificate of restoration applies, or if more than 10 years have passed since a non‑disqualifying negative action. The bill would also allow individual providers (IPs) and agency providers (APs) to have unsupervised access for up to 30 days while a CCS review is completed for…