Child welfare agencies; criminal history background checks requirement established. (HB552)
Introduced By
Del. Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax Station) with support from co-patron Sen. Jennifer McClellan (D-Richmond)
Progress
✓ |
Introduced |
✗ |
Passed Committee |
☐ |
Passed House |
☐ |
Passed Senate |
☐ |
Signed by Governor |
☐ |
Became Law |
Description
Child welfare agencies; criminal history background checks. Establishes a requirement for national criminal history background checks for child-care providers, adds crimes requiring registration with the Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry to the definition of "offense," and creates a portable background check registry for individuals required to undergo background checks. Read the Bill »
Outcome
Bill Has Failed
History
| Date | Action |
|---|---|
| 01/06/2014 | Committee |
| 01/06/2014 | Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/08/14 14102028D |
| 01/06/2014 | Referred to Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions |
| 01/09/2014 | Assigned HWI sub: # 2 |
| 01/23/2014 | Subcommittee recommends incorporating (HB412-Anderson) |
| 01/28/2014 | Tabled in Health, Welfare and Institutions |
Comments
It is a little-appreciated fact that our local social services departments, charged with ensuring some of these background checks, themselves employ people who could not pass such a check if it were conducted properly.
The Virginia Beach Department of Human Services for years employed an eligibility worker who stole thousands of dollars from an elderly lady who applied for Medicaid when her husband wound up in a nursing home. It turned out that the eligibility worker had prior similar convictions for embezzling funds from a social services department in an adjacent locality, for which she had been fired and served time. The Virginia Beach Department of Human Services utterly failed to do a background or criminal records check prior to hiring this convicted felon to work with the sensitive financial information of its most vulnerable elderly citizens.
http://hamptonroads.com/2013/08/va-beach-worker-faces-charges-city-investigating
http://hamptonroads.com/2013/08/virginia-beach-worker-has-prior-similar-felonies
The Virginia Beach Department of Human Services also employed and screened a foster mother who killed her infant foster child, after tormenting, abusing and neglecting him for months, right under the noses of social workers.
http://hamptonroads.com/2012/07/report-babys-death-calls-foster-care-changes
http://hamptonroads.com/2013/02/va-beach-pay-450000-settle-fostercare-suit
When this baby's death evoked public outcry, always willing to shoot the messenger, the Virginia Beach Department of Human Services, with the help of Norfolk Social Services, compounded their criminal behavior by attempting to cover up the situation and to retaliate against the previous heartbroken foster parents of this dead child, who were only seeking an inquiry into the circumstances of this baby's death so that the same thing did not happen to another innocent child.
http://wtkr.com/2012/02/15/whistle-blowing-foster-parents-fighting-possibly-race-based-removal-of-child/
So, yes, background checks are important. So is following up on the information obtained, and firing all of those who try to cover up wrongdoing in the Virginia Beach Department of Human Services.