Background Checks for Prospective Foster, Adoptive, and Kinship Caregivers - Puerto Rico
Who Needs Records Checks
Citation: Ann. Laws Tit. 8, §§ 68; 69; 482; Tit. 32, § 2699b
Background checks are required for the following:
- Child care services providers, including the following:
- Owners, administrators, operators, managers, custodians, and the candidates, employees, or volunteers who provide or are interested in providing services in the child care facilities or camps for adolescents
- Owners, operators, or employees of daycare centers or daycare homes
- Persons residing and providing care in a foster home or group home
- A prospective adoptive parent
Types of Records That Must Be Checked
Citation: Ann. Laws Tit. 8, § 482; Tit. 32, § 2699b
The background check requires certification that the following records have been checked:
- The Registry of Persons Convicted of Sex Crimes and Child Abuse
- The Criminal Record Register of the Puerto Rico police or the Criminal Justice Information System
Process for Obtaining Records Checks
Citation: Ann. Laws Tit. 8, § 482; Tit. 32, § 2699b
The certification required shall be issued by the Puerto Rico police. The police superintendent shall adopt and promulgate the regulations needed to enforce the provisions of this chapter related to the application and issue of the certification. The regulations may require that the applicant fill out a form with detailed personal information and submit the information as well as a photograph and a sample of his or her fingerprints to the Puerto Rico police. The superintendent may retain the forms, photographs, and fingerprint samples and use them for investigative purposes.
A criminal record certificate of the prospective adoptive parent must accompany the adoption petition.
Grounds for Disqualification
Citation: Ann. Laws Tit. 8, § 482; Tit. 32, § 2699b
No person may provide care for children unless he or she has previously applied for and received a certification indicating that he or she is not registered in the registry of persons convicted of sex crimes and child abuse or has been convicted of any violent sex crime, child abuse, or any of the following felonies:
- Murder, homicide, or incitement to suicide
- Aggravated assault
- Rape, seduction, sodomy, incest, or bestiality
- Indecent exposure, obscene propositions, procurement, roguery, or carnal commerce
- Production, possession, and distribution of child pornography
- Use of a minor for purposes of child pornography
- Restriction of liberty, kidnapping, or child abduction
- Abandonment of a minor
- Illegal deprivation of custody
- Adoption in exchange for payment
- Perversion of a minor
- Public mendicancy by a minor
- Theft, extortion, or imposture
- Abuse against minors or disabled persons
- Arson or devastation
- A violation of the Controlled Substances Act