STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1056
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE(Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sens. SERRANO, KRUEGER, RAMOS, WEBB -- read twice and
ordered printed, and when printed to be committed 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, if the mentoring program is operated by a not-for-profit corpo-
16 ration, no processing fee shall be imposed for a criminal background
17 check. The office shall promptly submit the fingerprint card and the
18 processing fee, if imposed pursuant to subdivision eight-a of section
19 eight hundred thirty-seven of the executive law, to the division of
20 criminal justice services for its full search and retain processing.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00452-01-5
S. 1056 2
1 § 2. Subdivision 8-a of section 837 of the executive law, as amended
2 by chapter 561 of the laws of 2006, is amended to read as follows:
3 8-a. Charge a fee when, pursuant to statute or the regulations of the
4 division, it conducts a search of its criminal history records and
5 returns a report thereon in connection with an application for employ-
6 ment or for a license or permit. The division shall adopt and may, from
7 time to time, amend a schedule of such fees which shall be in amounts
8 determined by the division to be reasonably related to the cost of
9 conducting such searches and returning reports thereon but, in no event,
10 shall any such fee exceed twenty-five dollars and an additional
11 surcharge of fifty dollars. The comptroller is hereby authorized to
12 deposit such fees into the general fund, provided, however, that the
13 monies received by the division of criminal justice services for payment
14 of the additional surcharge shall be deposited in equal amounts to the
15 general fund and to the fingerprint identification and technology
16 account. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the division shall not request
17 or accept any fee for searching its records and supplying a criminal
18 history report pursuant to section two hundred fifty-one-b of the gener-
19 al business law relating to participating in flight instruction at any
20 aeronautical facility, flight school or institution of higher learning,
21 or pursuant to section three hundred ninety-e of the social services law
22 when the division is supplying a criminal history report to a mentoring
23 program operated by a not-for-profit corporation.
24 § 3. Paragraph (c) of subdivision 1 of section 390-e of the social
25 services law, as added by chapter 459 of the laws of 2006, is amended to
26 read as follows:
27 (c) "Mentoring program" shall mean a formalized program, operated by:
28 (i) a corporation which has been incorporated pursuant to subparagraph
29 five of paragraph (a) of section one hundred two of the not-for-profit
30 corporation law or pursuant to subparagraph four of paragraph (a) of
31 section one hundred two of the business corporation law[, or operated
32 by];
33 (ii) an educational institution or school district, that matches youth
34 with adult volunteers with the purpose of providing such youth with
35 positive role models to enhance their development; or
36 (iii) a youth sports program.
37 § 4. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
38 have become a law.
