Adult abuse registry bill heads to House floor

• The bill would create a registry to show if job candidates have abused the disabled or elderly.
• The bill would require records to be checked before hiring.
• The bill creates due process protections for accused perpetrators.

FRANKFORT, Ky. – A bill that would create a registry for those who abuse or exploit adults advanced in the House on Thursday after advocates said it would provide badly needed protections for some of the state’s most vulnerable populations.

Senate Bill 98 — sponsored by Sen. Sara Beth Gregory, R-Monticello — cleared the House Health and Welfare Committee without opposition and now heads to the full House for consideration.

The measure would create a registry to help personal-care agencies determine if prospective employees have a substantiated history of abusing, exploiting or neglecting disabled or elderly adults.

“Currently, employers do not have an ability to do that,” Gregory testified. “There is no way to know.”

It also would require that the records be checked before hiring and makes the information accessible for families seeking to retain a home-care worker. And, the bill creates due process protections for accused perpetrators, Gregory said.

Since 2009, the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services has substantiated more than 7,400 adult-abuse allegations, but most cases do not result in criminal charges and employers cannot access case histories, according to the Kentucky Protection and Advocacy Division.

Kentucky already has a registry of people who were found to have abused or neglected children, but has no similar system for personal caregivers with a history of abusing adults.

Similar measures have died in past sessions, but House and Senate leaders have urged passage this year.

Reporter Mike Wynn can be reached at (502) 875-5136. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeWynn_CJ.