House Bill No. 449

Introduced By _______________________________________________________________________________

A Bill for an Act entitled: "An Act authorizing the dissemination of criminal history record information relating to an applicant for a teaching or specialist certificate to the superintendent of public instruction for licensing purposes or the dissemination of criminal history record information relating to an applicant for employment or for appointment to certain noncertified or volunteer positions at a public or private school to the district superintendent or to the chief administrator if the district superintendent or the chief administrator provides the applicant's fingerprints to the department of justice or another criminal justice agency; and amending section

44-5-302, MCA."

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Montana:

Section 1.  Section 44-5-302, MCA, is amended to read:

"44-5-302.   Dissemination of criminal history record information that is not public criminal justice information. (1) Criminal history record information may not be disseminated to agencies other than criminal justice agencies unless:

(a)  the information is disseminated with the consent or at the request of the individual about whom it relates according to procedures specified in 44-5-214 and 44-5-215;

(b)  a district court considers dissemination necessary;

(c)  the information is disseminated in compliance with 44-5-304; or

(d)  the agency receiving the information is authorized by law to receive it.

(2)  The department of justice and other criminal justice agencies may accept fingerprints of applicants for:

(a) admission to the state bar of Montana and shall, with respect to a bar admission applicant whose fingerprints are given to the department or agency by the state bar, exchange available local, state, multistate, local, federal (to the extent allowed by federal law), and other criminal history record information with the state bar for licensing purposes;

(b) a teaching or specialist certificate or for employment in a noncertified position or appointment to a volunteer position that has unsupervised access to students and shall, with respect to the applicant or appointee whose fingerprints are given to the department or agency by the superintendent of public instruction or a district superintendent, exchange available local, state, multistate, federal (to the extent allowed by federal law), and other criminal history record information with the superintendent of public instruction for licensing purposes or with a district superintendent for employment or appointment purposes; or

(c) employment or for appointment to a volunteer position that has unsupervised access to students at a private school and shall, with respect to the applicant or appointee whose fingerprints are given to the department or agency by the chief administrative officer of a private school, exchange available local, state, multistate, federal (to the extent allowed by federal law), and other criminal history record information with the chief administrative officer for employment or appointment purposes."

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