2020 Georgia Code
Title 20 - Education
Chapter 1A - Early Care and Learning
Article 2 - Background Checks
§ 20-1A-35. Provisional Employees; Receipt of Satisfactory Determination; Revocation of License, Commission, or Permit for Violations

1. Where there is need for a provisional employee to work at a licensed, commissioned, or permitted early care and education program facility, such early care and education program may utilize an individual as a provisional employee only after the individual receives a satisfactory determination pursuant to rules and regulations promulgated by the department in accordance with this article. No such provisional employee shall be present at a facility while any child is present for care or reside in a facility until such satisfactory determination has been made. The board shall be authorized to define and enforce all regulations pertaining to provisional employees. The department may revoke the license, commission, or permit of an early care and education program if the early care and education program fails to comply with the rules and regulations pertaining to provisional employees.
2. If the department determines a licensed, commissioned, or permitted early care and education program knows or should reasonably know that a provisional employee has a criminal record and allows the provisional employee to be present at a facility while children are present for care or to reside at a facility, the department shall revoke the license, commission, or permit for that early care and education program.

(Code 1981, §20-1A-35, enacted by Ga. L. 2004, p. 645, § 1; Ga. L. 2013, p. 285, § 2/HB 350; Ga. L. 2015, p. 965, § 2/HB 401; Ga. L. 2018, p. 1101, § 7/HB 494.)

The 2015 amendment, effective January 1, 2016, substituted the present provisions of this Code section for the former provisions, which read: "Where there is need for a provisional employee to work at a center's facility, such center may utilize an individual as a provisional employee only after the director reviews a preliminary records check and makes a satisfactory determination in accordance with this article. No such provisional employee shall be present in the facility while any child is present for care until such satisfactory preliminary records check determination has been made based upon GCIC information obtained from local law enforcement within the prior ten days. The board shall be authorized to define and enforce by regulations, including, but not limited to, the length of time a provisional employee may be present at a facility without a fingerprint records check determination. The department may revoke the license of a center if the center fails to comply with the requirements of this Code section and employs a person with an unsatisfactory preliminary records check determination."

The 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, rewrote subsection (a); and, in subsection (b), substituted "employee to be present at a facility" for "employee to reside at an early care and education program or be present at an early care and education program" in the middle and inserted "or to reside at a facility" near the end.