Requires mandatory background checks for persons employed by or volunteering at any business, organization, or entity that regularly provides instructional, recreational or extracurricular services to minors, including but not limited to dance studios, gymnastic schools, martial arts academies, sports training facilities, music schools and performing arts schools, tutoring and academic enrichment centers; provides for enforcement and penalties; prohibits certain people from owning such businesses.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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5257--B
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 20, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sens. HINCHEY, ROLISON, C. RYAN -- read twice and ordered
printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Consumer
Protection -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as
amended and recommitted to said committee -- recommitted to the
Committee on Consumer Protection in accordance with Senate Rule 6,
sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as
amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the general business law, in relation to requiring
mandatory background checks for persons employed by certain businesses
serving minors and prohibiting certain persons from owning such busi-
nesses
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The general business law is amended by adding a new section
2 398-g to read as follows:
3 § 398-g. Background check requirements for youth service providers. 1.
4 As used in this section:
5 (a) (i) "Youth service provider" means any of the following busi-
6 nesses, organizations, or entities that regularly provide instructional,
7 recreational or extracurricular services to minors, including but not
8 limited to:
9 (A) dance, gymnastics, music, or performing arts studios or schools;
10 (B) martial arts academies;
11 (C) sports training facilities; or
12 (D) tutoring or academic enrichment centers.
13 (ii) "Youth service provider facility" shall not include any public or
14 private school subject to the provisions of the education law or any day
15 care center subject to the provisions of article six of the social
16 services law.
17 (b) "Covered person" means an operator, employee, volunteer, or inde-
18 pendent contractor, who has direct responsibility for the supervision,
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09912-05-5
S. 5257--B 2
1 instruction, care, or safety of minors and has contact with minors
2 through a youth service provider facility.
3 (c) "Minor child" or "minor" means a child under the age of eighteen
4 years.
5 2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, and
6 subject to rules and regulations of the division of criminal justice
7 services, the following background checks shall be conducted by youth
8 service providers for covered persons at the time and in the manner
9 required by this section:
10 (a) a search of the New York state sex offender registry;
11 (b) a search of any state sex offender registry or repository in each
12 state other than New York where such person resides or resided during
13 the preceding five years, if applicable unless such state's sex offender
14 registry information will be provided as part of the clearance conducted
15 pursuant to paragraph (c) of this subdivision; and
16 (c) a search of the United States department of justice national sex
17 offender public website.
18 3. A covered person must undergo a background check as described in
19 subdivision two of this section:
20 (a) before being employed at, volunteering at, contracted by, or oper-
21 ating a youth service provider; and
22 (b) at least once every three years during such employment, volunteer-
23 ing, contracting, or operating at the youth service provider facility.
24 4. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, a
25 covered person shall be deemed disqualified from employment, volunteer-
26 ing, or contracting at a youth service provider facility if such person,
27 either before or during employment:
28 (a) refuses to consent to the background check described in subdivi-
29 sion two of this section;
30 (b) knowingly makes a materially false statement in connection with
31 such background check; or
32 (c) is registered, or is required to be registered, on a state sex
33 offender registry or repository or the United States department of
34 justice national sex offender registry.
35 5. No person who is registered, or is required to be registered, on a
36 sex offender registry pursuant to paragraph (c) of subdivision four of
37 this section shall own or operate a youth service provider facility. For
38 purposes of this subdivision, ownership shall mean having a controlling
39 interest in the youth service provider facility.
40 6. The provisions of this section shall not apply to any person
41 rendering emergency services at the youth service provider facility.
42 7. (a) A violation of the provisions of this section shall be punisha-
43 ble by a civil penalty of not more than twenty-five thousand dollars per
44 violation recoverable in an action by the attorney general in the name
45 of the people of the state or by the corporation counsel for any city or
46 by the appropriate attorney of any other political subdivision as shall
47 be designated by the governing body of such political subdivision. Any
48 civil penalty recovered shall accrue to the jurisdiction which brought
49 the action.
50 (b) A youth service provider or owner that fails to comply with the
51 background check requirements of this section or knowingly employing or
52 contracting with an individual or volunteer disqualified under subdivi-
53 sion four of this section shall be subject to suspension or revocation
54 of any license or permit to operate the youth service provider facility
55 where the violation occurred.
S. 5257--B 3
1 (c) The attorney general or the district attorney of any county may
2 bring an action in the name of the people of the state to restrain or
3 prevent any violation of this article or any continuance of any such
4 violation.
5 § 2. The division of criminal justice services shall promulgate and
6 enforce any rules and regulations necessary for the implementation of
7 this act.
8 § 3. Severability. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision,
9 section or part of this act shall be adjudged by any court of competent
10 jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair, or
11 invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation
12 to the clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section or part thereof
13 directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have
14 been rendered. It is hereby declared to be the intent of the legislature
15 that this act would have been enacted even if such invalid provisions
16 had not been included herein.
17 § 4. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
18 it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amend-
19 ment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implemen-
20 tation of this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and
21 completed on or before such effective date.
