NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A7740
SPONSOR: Rozic TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the executive law, in relation to
expanding the protections to housing, higher education, and volunteer
activity
PURPOSE: To amend the Executive Law § 296(16) to expand its
protections to housing, higher education and volunteer activity.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section I of the bill:
* Expands Executive Law § 296(16) to provide that in the domains of
housing, higher education, and volunteer work, decision-makers cannot
ask about or consider sealed arrests and convictions.
* Changes the structure of Executive Law § 296(16) from one long para-
graph that is difficult to read to three paragraphs that track the
provision's three main points, a non-substantive yet important change
designed to enhance the provision's utilization and effectiveness.
* Specifies that decision-makers in the domains of employment, housing,
higher education, and volunteer work are explicitly prohibited from
asking applicants about Juvenile Delinquent dispositions, a protection
that is not currently included in the Family Court Act's confidentiality
provisions.
* Explicitly authorizes applicants to respond negatively to unlawful
inquiries, a change that is necessary to address the reality that in all
domains - including employment - decision-makers continues to use appli-
cations that ask applicants to disclose sealed arrests and convictions.
* Expands the current protection against the disclosure and use of
sealed arrests and convictions in credit applications to also include
mortgage applications.
* Prohibits decision-makers from considering sealable (not just sealed)
violation convictions, a change that parallels how the provision
currently treats sealable dispositions favorable to the accused.
Section II of the bill provides for an effective date.
JUSTIFICATION: Executive Law § 296(16) has long protected employment
applicants and employees from discrimination based on sealed arrests or
convictions. Such protection recognizes the importance of employment in
promoting a person's successful reintegration into society as a law
abiding citizen after contacts with the criminal justice system. In this
sense, Executive Law § 296(16) is consistent with New York's goal of
promoting the "successful and productive reentry and reintegration into
society" of people who have been arrested. See Penal Law § 1.05 (6).
Like employment, access to stable housing, higher education, and volun-
teer opportunities can be critical to a person's successful reinte-
gration into the community after an arrest. Yet decision-makers in all
of these domains are increasingly using criminal background checks which
all too often reveal sealed arrests and convictions. While Executive
Law § 296(16) provides that employers cannot rely upon sealed informa-
tion in making employment decisions, no similar protection exist in
contexts of housing, higher education, and volunteer work.
There are also instances in which decision-makers ask questions that
intentionally or inadvertently require applicants to reveal sealed
arrests or convictions. A good illustration of this is the application
for admission to Saint John Fisher College in Rochester, New York, which
asks applicants- if they have ever "been charged with a crime (felony or
misdemeanor) in any state or country, the disposition of which was other
than an acquittal or dismissal." This question seemingly requires the
disclosure of a non-criminal convictions that have been sealed under the
Criminal Procedure Law (CPL) § 160.55, criminal arrests that have
resulted in a Youthful Offender adjudication under CPL § 720.35, or a
conviction which has been conditionally sealed under CPL § 160.58.
Indeed, since housing, higher education, and volunteer work are not
currently included in Executive Law § 296(16), some decision-makers in
these contexts believe that they can and should ask applicants about all
arrests and convictions, regardless of whether they have been sealed,
In Short, while Executive Law § 296(16) protects people with sealed
arrests and convictions from discrimination in the context of employ-
ment, no similar protection exists in the contexts of housing, higher
education, and volunteer opportunities, thereby leaving people suscepti-
ble to being discriminated against in important aspects of their lives.
The proposed amendment to Executive Law § 296(16) is designed to close
this gap. In addition, the proposed amendments are designed to make the
very important Executive Law protections in this subdivision more "user-
friendly" and accessible to those who it governs and protects.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: This is a new bill in the Assembly.
FISCAL IMPACT ON THE STATE: None.
EFFECTIVE DATE: This act shall take effect ninety days after it shall
have become law.
