(730 ILCS 175/45-35)
Sec. 45-35.
Child abuse and neglect reports.
(a) All secure residential youth care facility
license applicants and all current and prospective employees of a secure
residential youth care facility who have any possible contact with youth in the
course of
their duties, as a condition of 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 the applicant or employee
has been determined to be a perpetrator in an indicated report of child
abuse or neglect.
(b) All secure residential youth care facilities as a condition of licensure
under this
Act shall maintain records showing that all current
employees and other applicants for employment who have any possible contact
with youth in the course of their duties have authorized an
investigation of the Central Register as required in subsection (a) of this
Section. Only those current or prospective employees who will have no possible
contact with youth as part of their present or prospective employment
may be excluded from provisions that require authorization of an investigation.
(c) 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 that 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 or needed
for the purposes of evaluation of an application for
licensure or for consideration by a secure residential youth care facility of
an employee. Any
employee of the Department who gives or causes to be given any confidential
information
concerning child abuse or neglect reports about a facility
applicant or facility employee shall be guilty of a Class A
misdemeanor unless release of the information is authorized by Section
11.1 of the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act.
(d) Any licensee who is informed by the Department of Children
and Family Services, under Section 7.4 of the Abused and Neglected
Child Reporting Act, that a formal
investigation has commenced relating to an employee of the facility or any
other person in frequent contact with youth at the
facility, shall take reasonable action necessary to ensure that the
employee or other person is restricted during the pendency of the
investigation from contact with youth whose care has been entrusted
to the facility.
(Source: P.A. 88-680, eff. 1-1-95.)
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