(225 ILCS 10/4.3) (from Ch. 23, par. 2214.3)
Sec. 4.3.
Child Abuse and Neglect Reports.
All child care facility
license applicants and all current and prospective employees of a child
care facility who have any possible contact with children in the course of
their duties, as a condition of such licensure or employment, shall
authorize in writing on a form prescribed by the Department an
investigation of the Central Register, as defined in the Abused and
Neglected Child Reporting Act, to ascertain if such applicant or employee
has been determined to be a perpetrator in an indicated report of child
abuse or neglect.
All child care facilities as a condition of licensure pursuant to this
Act shall maintain such information which demonstrates that all current
employees and other applicants for employment who have any possible contact
with children in the course of their duties have authorized an
investigation of the Central Register as hereinabove required.
Only those current or prospective employees who will have no possible
contact with children as part of their present or prospective employment
may be excluded from provisions requiring authorization of an investigation.
Such information concerning a license applicant, employee or prospective
employee obtained by the Department shall be confidential and
exempt from public inspection and copying as provided under Section 7 of
The Freedom of Information Act, and such information shall not be
transmitted outside the Department, except as provided in the Abused and
Neglected Child Reporting Act, and shall not be transmitted to anyone
within the Department except as provided in the Abused and Neglected Child
Reporting Act, and shall not be transmitted to anyone within the Department
except as needed for the purposes of evaluation of an application for
licensure or for consideration by a child care facility of an employee. Any
employee of the Department of Children and Family Services under
this Section who gives or causes to be given any confidential information
concerning any child abuse or neglect reports about a child care facility
applicant, child care facility employee, shall be guilty of a Class A
misdemeanor, unless release of such information is authorized by Section
11.1 of the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act.
Additionally, any licensee who is informed by the Department of Children
and Family Services, pursuant to Section 7.4 of the Abused and Neglected
Child Reporting Act, approved June 26, 1975, as amended, that a formal
investigation has commenced relating to an employee of the child care
facility or any other person in frequent contact with children at the
facility, shall take reasonable action necessary to insure that the
employee or other person is restricted during the pendency of the
investigation from contact with children whose care has been entrusted
to the facility.
When a foster family home is the
subject
of an indicated report under the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act, the
Department of Children and Family Services must immediately conduct a
re-examination of the foster family
home to
evaluate whether it continues to meet the minimum standards for licensure. The
re-examination is separate and apart from the formal investigation of the
report.
The
Department must establish a schedule for re-examination of the foster family
home
mentioned in the report at least once a year.
(Source: P.A. 91-557, eff. 1-1-00.)
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