House Status:
Senate Status:
Senate Status:
Minutes for SB491 - Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice
Short Title
Standardizing criminal history record check fingerprinting language and defining who may be fingerprinted for a criminal history record check.
Minutes Content for Tue, Mar 12, 2024
The Chair opened the hearing on SB491. Natalie Scott provided an overview of the bill. (Attachment 1)
Robert Stuart, Executive Officer, Kansas Bureau of Investigation testified in support of the bill which he said will combine and standardize language that must be cited in state statute to allow a non-criminal justice agency to receive national criminal history record information. One of the concerns of the FBI was the lack of “definition” for individuals or positions for whom fingerprint record checks would be performed. This bill attempts to provide more specific definitions of those individuals, as needed by the FBI. The bill changes the structure of the civil background check statutes to create a single statute, which defines the required language necessary for conducting a civil fingerprint background check, while updating the language in approximately 77 statutes that refer to civil criminal history record checks. (Attachment 2)
Joseph House, Executive Director, Emergency Medical Services Board testified in support of the bill. The Emergency Medical Services Board is the lead EMS agency in the state responsible for protecting the public through the effective oversight of all things EMS related in Kansas; this includes ambulance services, ambulances, EMS providers, and EMS educational entities. They are one of the agencies that requires a criminal history record check be performed for all new licensees. This bill is consistent with, and appropriate for, the high degree of trust needing to be rendered by the public for their potential licensees. Records of adjudication are very necessary to their licensing process since they have applicants that are under the age of 18. (Attachment 3)
Written only proponent testimony was submitted by Alexandra Blasi on behalf of KS Board of Pharmacy. (Attachment 4). There was no other testimony.
The Chair closed the hearing on SB491. The meeting was adjourned at 2:05 PM.
