Bill
AB 521
Strengthens background screening for child-serving facilities by requiring registry checks (5-year lookback), fingerprinting, and employment/certification consequences for substant
Status: Enacted (Chapter 30). Introduced: Feb 10, 2025. Sponsor: Committee on Health and Human Services / Carrillo (author).
Purpose
- Strengthen background screening for persons who operate, work for, or contract with facilities that provide services to children by requiring release of information from the Statewide Central Registry for the Collection of Information Concerning the Abuse or Neglect of a Child (the “Statewide Central Registry”), and by creating employment and licensing consequences when a substantiated report of child abuse or neglect is identified.
Key provisions
- Definitions: Adds a statutory definition of “Statewide Central Registry” (NRS 432.100) and applies existing chapter definitions to the bill’s provisions.
- Written authorization for registry checks:
- Applicants for licenses to operate facilities, and license holders, must provide written authorization for the Division of Child and Family Services to release any information from the Statewide Central Registry (and, as amended, any equivalent out‑of‑state registry) covering the immediately preceding 5 years to determine whether there has been a substantiated report of child abuse or neglect.
- Employees, employees of temporary employment services, and independent contractors for covered facilities must, within 10 days of hire or contracting, provide written authorization for the Division to release registry information covering the preceding 5 years.
- Criminal fingerprint checks: Continues/clarifies existing requirements to submit fingerprints to the Central Repository for Nevada Records of Criminal History and the FBI; the bill pairs these criminal checks with the registry authorizations.
- Periodic rechecks: Persons who hold licenses to operate certain child‑serving residential facilities, psychiatric hospitals providing inpatient services to children, and psychiatric residential treatment facilities must authorize registry checks at least once every 5 years after the initial investigation.
- Intermediary service organizations (ISOs):
- Employees and contractors of certain intermediary service organizations must provide the same written authorizations.
- Holders of a certificate to operate an ISO are required to terminate the employment of any person who has a substantiated report of child abuse or neglect.
- The Division may deny, suspend, or revoke an ISO’s certificate if the certificate holder continues to employ an individual with a substantiated report or if the holder has a substantiated report themselves.
- Amendments: Assembly Amendment No. 457 expanded the scope to require release of information from equivalent registries in other jurisdictions (5‑year lookback).
Who is affected
- Applicants and license holders for facilities, hospitals, agencies, programs or homes that provide residential services to children (including psychiatric inpatient and residential treatment facilities).
- Employees, temporary staffing employees, and independent contractors who work at those facilities.
- Intermediary service organizations that place or provide personnel to child‑serving facilities and their certificate holders.
Procedural / timeline notes
- Authorizations for registry checks must cover the immediately preceding 5 years.
- Employers must obtain required authorizations and fingerprints within 10 days after hiring or contracting.
- License‑holder rechecks occur at least once every 5 years after the initial check.
- The bill was enacted in 2025 (chaptered as Chapter 30) and amends NRS provisions including those cited in sections 449.122 and 449.123.
Potential impacts (practical)
- Raises screening and reporting obligations for child‑serving providers and their contractors; may increase administrative burden for compliance (authorizations, fingerprinting, periodic rechecks).
- Imposes concrete employment and certification consequences where registry checks reveal substantiated child abuse/neglect within the lookback period.
- Expands background review by requiring consideration of equivalent out‑of‑state registry information (per amendment).
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
Sign in to ask a question.
