Legislation preventing sexual predators and human traffickers from working in senior living communities is working its way through the Oklahoma Legislature.
Last week, the Oklahoma Senate approved Senate Bill 369 to prohibit long-term care facilities from employing anyone listed on the state’s juvenile sex offender registry, maintained by the Office of Juvenile Affairs, or who has been convicted of human trafficking. The bill applies to assisted living communities, residential care homes, continuing care retirement / life plan communities, nursing facilities, home health settings and adult day centers.
The juvenile sex offender registry is closed to the public. The bill would grant long-term care facilities access to the registry to further vet prospective employees. It also would decrease the time period — from seven to five years — that nurse aides would be precluded from employment at long-term care facilities for any nonviolent offenses.
“This legislation closes an extremely dangerous loophole that has allowed those who were convicted of sexual crimes as minors to be hired to work with our most vulnerable adults in long-term care centers, many who are physically or mentally unable to protect themselves,” state Sen. Jessica Garvin (R-Duncan) said in a statement. “We must make sure our long-term care facilities know exactly who is applying and being able to thoroughly check their criminal records and backgrounds while also providing them with legal protection by putting this in statute.”
In many states, long-term care employers are only able to look back two to three years on a nonviolent offender’s record during a background search. Oklahoma employers must wait seven years after a sentence ends to hire nonviolent offenders.
Care Providers of Oklahoma said that it will be monitoring the bill as it progresses through the legislative process.
“SB 369 provides meaningful clarification on who can care for our state’s most vulnerable residents,” Care Providers of Oklahoma President and CEO Steven Buck told McKnight’s Senior Living.
The legislation now moves to the state House for consideration.
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