I wanted to clear some information up on the Illinois conviction record checks. Illinois, as stated before, is requiring that conviction and sex offender checks must be completed for help. In addition you must have a substance abuse policy in place that includes random testing.
The requirements are that you must obtain the conviction and sex offender check from the Illinois State Police. If for employment purposes you must have a release signed; in the United States this is required regardless under the Federal Credit Reporting Act and is required for any checks that we do. The release must be kept on file for at least two years.
The law also states these checks must be completed at the time of hire. If you have not completed these checks at the time of hire you are ok as long as you have not been operating in the state. This is not to say you should not complete the requirements as soon as possible if you are operating in Illinois.
A comment was made regarding green help; someone had mentioned going to the local police for checking green help once you arrive at the spot. In speaking with the State Police today they explained to me that you will not be able to complete these checks with the local police. They also stated that they are experiencing people waiting to the last minute in requesting their checks. Someone had traveled a great distance this week and wanted to complete the checks at the state police headquarters while he waited because he was opening this coming weekend. They were able to help him but they went on to say this is not possible with everyone as they are getting backlogged.
As it stands right now; we are completing checks and they will be a couple weeks to return. This will clear up in two to three weeks and we will be once again returning results to clients within 24-48 hours. Something else I am not sure if I was clear on… Our conviction record and sex offender checks for Illinois are completed through our direct electronic link to the Illinois State Police System, as with many other states. This DOES meet the standards required for the Illinois Conviction Search. What I was trying to explain about the online search companies that are out their; you must be sure they are completing the searches through the state police database and not just a privately owned database or at a local level.
The law also states that the checks must be completed on anyone “Employed”, for the purposes of this Act, means an individual who is performing services for an owner/operator regardless of whether or not they are being paid for their services. We have a special program established for volunteers; if you or someone is need of this give me a call and I will help you out with this.
I hope this helps some of you planning on working in Illinois. We have placed some information on our site, and we will be adding additional state information for other states who have passed similar laws, such as Massachusetts.
Bill