Kansas Elderly and Disability Care Workers Now Subject to Biometric Background Checks

Individuals seeking to work in home care or healthcare services for the elderly and individuals with disabilities in Kansas will now need to submit to biometric background checks.

The development comes by way of new legislation pertaining to the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services’ (KDADS) Health Occupations Credentialing program. KDADS is now authorized to conduct nationwide fingerprint-based background checks, a practice that is often employed for positions of public trust.

In a statement announcing the new legislation, Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer called it “a common-sense measure that will help to protect vulnerable Kansans.” Elaborating further on the bill’s importance, KDADS Secretary Tim Keck explained that “[c]urrently, there are approximately 8,000 individuals working in Kansas adult care homes who reside in a state that borders Kansas,” so a national, fingerprint-based background check “will ensure  that records of crimes committed in other states are available for review before individuals can be hired, regardless of their state of residence.”

The statement from KDADS also explained that the bill represents an attempt to make the hiring process more fair, as it brings three existing criminal record-check statutes into alignment in terms of the disqualifying offences outlined in them, and the timeframes that must elapse after such an offence in order for an applicant to be considered for a position with KDADS.

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May 21, 2018 – by Alex Perala