Judges: WINSTON BRYANT, Attorney General
Filed Date: 6/14/1996
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/5/2016
Debbie Hopkins, Chair Child Care Facility Review Board P.O. Box 1437, Slot 626 Little Rock, AR 72201
Dear Ms. Hopkins:
This is in response to your request for an opinion on two questions concerning A.C.A. §
Do child care facilities have to repeat the child maltreatment check on every single employee at every single license renewal?
Your second question involves the required criminal records check. You have asked:
Were current owners of child care facilities `grandfathered in' or must they also submit to a fingerprint check?
It must be concluded from the language of A.C.A. §§
All employees or conditional employees shall be checked with the Arkansas Child Abuse Central Registry for reports of child maltreatment. All employees in a child care facility shall further be checked with the registry for reports of child maltreatment during every child care facility license renewal.
A.C.A. §
It is well-established that the first rule in interpreting a statute is to construe it just as it reads, giving words their ordinary and usually accepted meaning. See generally City of Ft. Smith v. Tate,
Applying these precepts in this instance, it seems clear that the Central Registry check is required of all employees at every license renewal, notwithstanding the fact that some employees may have been hired, and therefore checked, just prior to the renewal. I cannot glean any evidence of legislative intent to authorize an exception in that case, and I do not believe a court would be willing to infer one from the current statutory language.
With regard to your second question, I assume that by "current owners" you mean those who were licensed to own or operate a child care facility when the legislation requiring criminal records checks was enacted. Although the answer to this question may be somewhat less clear, I believe the criminal records check requirement applies to those licensees when they seek renewal of their licenses. In response to your specific question, therefore, current owners were not "grandfathered in." They must also submit to a criminal records check when they apply for renewal of the license.
Section 20-78-602(a)(1) (Supp. 1995) states in relevant part that "[e]ach applicant for a license to own or operate a child care facility shall be required to apply . . . for a statewide criminal records check and a nationwide criminal records check. . . ." The requirement thus applies to "each applicant," and this language was continued from the original 1993 legislation. See Acts 1993, No. 1293, § 1.1
With regard, generally, to licensure, once granted a license continues in effect for two years or until revoked or suspended. A.C.A. §
It seems clear under the Minimum Licensing Requirements that a current owner (that is, one who was licensed when the criminal records check was enacted) who seeks license renewal is an "applicant." And it is my understanding that this reflects the administrative interpretation of the licensing requirements. This interpretation will, I believe, be upheld unless it is shown to be clearly wrong. See generally Arkansas State BankComm'r v. Bank of Marvel,
A potential counter argument, based upon a 1995 amendment, should perhaps be noted in this regard. The Central Registry check provision (§
While inclusion of the language in § 20-78-602 would be helpful in resolving any ambiguity, I cannot conclude that the 1995 amendment was intended to accord different treatment to Central Registry checks versus criminal records checks. The statute does not contain what is commonly referred to as a "grandfather clause" or a proviso exempting currently licensed owners or operators. And as noted above, the administrative regulations apply the term "applicant" to both new applicants and renewal applicants. Any ambiguity may be resolved by noting that the inclusion of language regarding "license renewal" simply serves to clarify and reinforce the fact that one seeking license renewal is still an "applicant." At the very least, the 1995 amendment does not, in my opinion, compel a finding that the administrative regulations are clearly wrong in applying the criminal records check requirement to those applying for renewal.
The foregoing opinion, which I hereby approve, was prepared by Assistant Attorney General Elisabeth A. Walker.
Sincerely,
WINSTON BRYANT Attorney General
WB:EAW/cyh
City of North Little Rock v. Montgomery , 261 Ark. 16 ( 1977 )
Brimer v. Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board , 312 Ark. 401 ( 1993 )
Arkansas State Bank Commissioner v. Bank of Marvell , 304 Ark. 602 ( 1991 )
Ramsey v. Department of Human Services , 301 Ark. 285 ( 1990 )