STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1604
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 10, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. RAMOS, SIMONE -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Children and Families
AN ACT to amend the social services law and the executive law, in
relation to the provision of criminal history background checks free
of charge to mentoring programs operated by not-for-profit corpo-
rations
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 4 of section 390-e of the social services law,
2 as added by chapter 459 of the laws of 2006, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 4. Every mentoring program that chooses to apply for a criminal histo-
5 ry background check with the division of criminal justice services shall
6 obtain a set of fingerprints from each individual for whom a criminal
7 background check is to be completed and such other information as is
8 required by the office and the division of criminal justice services.
9 For each prospective employee or mentor for whom the mentoring program
10 completes a criminal background check, the mentoring program shall
11 provide the applicant with blank fingerprint cards and a description of
12 how the completed fingerprint card will be used upon submission to the
13 mentoring program. The mentoring program shall promptly transmit such
14 fingerprint card and the processing fee to the office; provided, howev-
15 er, there shall be no processing fee for a criminal background check for
16 mentoring programs described in subparagraphs (i) and (iii) of paragraph
17 (c) of subdivision one of this section. The office shall promptly
18 submit the fingerprint card and the processing fee, if imposed pursuant
19 to subdivision eight-a of section eight hundred thirty-seven of the
20 executive law, to the division of criminal justice services for its full
21 search and retain processing.
22 § 2. Subdivision 8-a of section 837 of the executive law, as amended
23 by chapter 561 of the laws of 2006, is amended to read as follows:
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00452-02-5
A. 1604 2
1 8-a. Charge a fee when, pursuant to statute or the regulations of the
2 division, it conducts a search of its criminal history records and
3 returns a report thereon in connection with an application for employ-
4 ment or for a license or permit. The division shall adopt and may, from
5 time to time, amend a schedule of such fees which shall be in amounts
6 determined by the division to be reasonably related to the cost of
7 conducting such searches and returning reports thereon but, in no event,
8 shall any such fee exceed twenty-five dollars and an additional
9 surcharge of fifty dollars. The comptroller is hereby authorized to
10 deposit such fees into the general fund, provided, however, that the
11 monies received by the division of criminal justice services for payment
12 of the additional surcharge shall be deposited in equal amounts to the
13 general fund and to the fingerprint identification and technology
14 account. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the division shall not request
15 or accept any fee for searching its records and supplying a criminal
16 history report pursuant to section two hundred fifty-one-b of the gener-
17 al business law relating to participating in flight instruction at any
18 aeronautical facility, flight school or institution of higher learning,
19 or when the division is supplying a criminal history report to a mentor-
20 ing program described in subparagraphs (i) and (iii) of paragraph (c) of
21 subdivision one of section three hundred ninety-e of the social services
22 law.
23 § 3. Paragraph (c) of subdivision 1 of section 390-e of the social
24 services law, as added by chapter 459 of the laws of 2006, is amended to
25 read as follows:
26 (c) "Mentoring program" shall mean a formalized program, operated:
27 (i) by a corporation which has been incorporated pursuant to subpara-
28 graph five of paragraph (a) of section one hundred two of the not-for-
29 profit corporation law [or];
30 (ii) pursuant to subparagraph four of paragraph (a) of section one
31 hundred two of the business corporation law[, or operated by]; or
32 (iii) by an educational institution or school district, [that matches]
33 for the purpose of matching youth with adult volunteers [with the
34 purpose of providing] to provide such youth with positive role models to
35 enhance their development.
36 § 4. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
37 have become a law.
