Bill Text: NJ A2418 | 2016-2017 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires certain child care center staff members to be tested for tuberculosis every five years as condition of continued employment.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-02-04 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Women and Children Committee [A2418 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2016-A2418-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman TIM EUSTACE
District 38 (Bergen and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Requires certain child care center staff members to be tested for tuberculosis every five years as condition of continued employment.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning child care centers and supplementing P.L.1983, c.492 (C.30:5B-1 et seq.).
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, as a condition of continued employment at a licensed child care center, every staff member whose job duties require contact with children for at least 20 percent of the child care center's weekly operating hours shall take a test to determine whether the staff member is infected with mycobacterium tuberculosis every five years while employed at the center.
b. The staff member shall submit to the center written documentation from a health care provider certifying the results of the test, and shall submit documentation each time the test is performed pursuant to subsection a. of this section. The documentation submitted by the staff member shall be maintained on file by the center.
c. If the staff member refuses to consent to, or cooperate in, taking a test pursuant to the provisions of subsection a. of this section, the staff member shall be immediately terminated from employment at the center.
2. The Department of Children and Families, in consultation with the Department of Health, shall adopt rules and regulations pursuant to the "Administrative Procedures Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), to effectuate the purposes of this act.
3. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires that as a condition of continued employment at a licensed child care center, every staff member whose job duties require contact with children for at least 20 percent of the child care center's weekly operating hours take a tuberculosis test to every five years while employed by the center.
Currently, a licensed child care center staff member who comes into contact with children for at least 20 percent of the center's weekly operating hours is required to take a tuberculosis test prior to or upon beginning work at the center.
The staff member is not required to retake the test on a regular basis as a condition of continued employment. The staff member may be retested only if the Office of Licensing in the Department of Children and Families has reason to believe or suspect that the staff member may have contracted tuberculosis or the Department of Health recommends retesting.
The bill requires the staff member to submit to the child care center written documentation from a health care provider certifying the results of the tuberculosis test each time the test is performed, and such documentation would be maintained on file by the center.
The bill also stipulates that if the staff member refuses to consent to, or cooperate in, taking a tuberculosis test in accordance with the provisions of the bill, the staff member would be immediately terminated from employment at the center.
