Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee members recommended a do-pass on Senate Bill 66, which would create an exemption to the Criminal Offender Employment Act so agencies that license caregivers can consider certain misdemeanor convictions, sponsors and witnesses said.

Senator Daniel I. Nava, the bill sponsor, told the committee the legislation “protects children and vulnerable adults” by allowing the Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD), Aging and Long Term Services, the Health Care Authority, Children, Youth and Families Department and the Public Education Department to consider specified misdemeanors (enticement of a child, stalking, battery of a household member) when performing background clearances and licensing caregivers. “It doesn’t require us to deny anyone a background clearance because a misdemeanor exists on the record,” Shelley Strong, general counsel for ECECD, told the panel.

The bill would carve out child-care providers and some caregivers from the statutory ban on considering misdemeanors. Committee members asked how out-of-state convictions, tribal convictions and online offenses would be handled. witnesses said agencies obtain national and state checks (generally five years of state records and NCIC/federal data) and would be able to consider out‑of‑state convictions if they appear in those databases; they also said federal or state convictions that are properly entered into systems could be considered, and that the department uses multiple sources (NCIC, Department of Public Safety, court records) rather than relying on a single database.

Committee members pressed on practical points: whether arrests without convictions are considered (agencies said they consider convictions, not arrests), how delays in database updates could affect hiring, how substance‑use offenses fit into the list (witnesses said most serious substance‑use crimes are felonies and already reviewable), and what administrative rules would govern agency discretion (a senator asked agencies to consider limiting review to convictions “related to the purpose of the agency”).

After discussion, Senator Silvia Lopez moved a do‑pass recommendation; Senator Block seconded. The roll call showed a unanimous committee recommendation: a due‑pass report by a vote of 10‑0.

If enacted, the bill would not automatically ban or require denials for any conviction; sponsors and agency witnesses said it would simply authorize agencies to review specified misdemeanor convictions as part of a broader suitability determination and would preserve existing appeal processes for denied applicants.