Chattanooga employer challenges how past convictions can rule out current hires


              A job seeker fills out an application during a National Career Fairs job fair Wednesday, April 22, 2015, in Chicago. Weekly applications for jobless aid ticked up 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 295,000, the Labor Department said Thursday, April 23, 2015. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, increased to 284,500. Still, that is just 2,000 higher than three weeks ago when the average was at a nearly 15-year low.(AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
A job seeker fills out an application during a National Career Fairs job fair Wednesday, April 22, 2015, in Chicago. Weekly applications for jobless aid ticked up 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 295,000, the Labor Department said Thursday, April 23, 2015. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, increased to 284,500. Still, that is just 2,000 higher than three weeks ago when the average was at a nearly 15-year low.(AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

A Chattanooga adult day care center provider is alleging that laws prohibiting people with theft and simple assault records from working in adult day care centers disproportionately affect black males.

"Even if the charge was 30 years ago, in the health care field of adult day care or child care, you can't work in a day care center," said Sharon Kelly, owner of Sharon's Adult Senior Services, which includes Sharon's Adult Day Center on Raulston Street.

She used the National Adult Day Services Week observance from Sept. 18-24 to draw attention to crime laws that prohibit people convicted of certain crimes from employment with businesses specializing in the care of vulnerable populations, such as children, the elderly and those with mental disabilities.

Kelly, vice president for public policy at the Tennessee Association of Adult Day Services, said she plans to take her concerns to the General Assembly in Nashville within the next six months.

"I could see if it was something that recently happened, but if you're talking about something that happened 20 years ago, they need a second chance," said Kelly, also an adult day services regulation advisory board member for Gov. Bill Haslam.

Joy Randall, human resources director of Alexian Brothers Community Services, said she also had some difficulty hiring people because of background checks, but she appreciates the extra scrutiny.

"We had an applicant who did the fingerprint check and they were initially denied based on a bad check they had written 20 or 30 years ago," Randall said. "They had to take steps to clear that off their record, which they did. It's an extra step, but it's nice to have that objective eye looking at people who are going to take care of that frail population."

Kelly said she thinks minorities are disproportionately affected by background checks.

More than 40 percent of the black males and some women she attempts to hire are prohibited from working in her adult day care center because of a simple assault or theft charge, she said.

Sharon's Senior Services employs 40 people, three of them black males, Kelly said. She has no black males at Sharon's Adult Day Care.

She said the Veteran's Administration requires that she employ one care worker for every six clients, and it's hard to find them.

Anthony Norman perfectly fit Kelly's need for a day care worker, she said. He is a certified nursing assistant with more than 20 years experience in caring for the elderly and people with disabilities. And he is willing to get his F Endorsement driver's license so he can transport clients to the day care, she said.

It's also helpful that he's a male and able to lift other men who need help getting to the bathroom, she said.

Norman was a good fit until a background check revealed a "receiving and concealing stolen property" charge that put a felony on his record in 1982. He said his roommate had stolen two microscopes from his college and brought them back to their room, but both were charged.

Norman also got a marijuana possession charge in 1992.

"That was a while back," he said. "Then I was a totally different person."

He's been in no trouble since then, but state law prohibits Kelly from hiring him because of the felony charge.

Kelly said laws for adult day care center workers have become more strict. More than eight years ago, a simple assault charge didn't prohibit a nurse or certified nursing assistant from working in adult day care or child care facilities, she said.

Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.

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