Criminal records no longer an automatic disqualifier for a Certified Nursing Assistant license.
At the end of last month, Governor Jerry Brown signed an important new law that will help individuals with criminal records broaden their job prospects. The law puts an end to the discriminatory practice of automatically denying a Certified Nursing Assistant license to anyone with any kind of criminal record.
The California Department of Public Health had opposed the legislation, arguing that it would interfere with the state’s ability to protect patients from “dangerous” individuals. Fortunately, this argument was not heeded. Instead, legislators rejected it on the grounds that it is unfair to stereotype all individuals with criminal records as “dangerous.”
Many of the individuals who had been denied CNA licenses in the past had convictions for non-violent offenses like petty theft or receipt of stolen property. Others had convictions for assault earned while fighting back against domestic abusers. Often, the convictions were decades old, but still serving as a millstone around the individual’s neck.
The California of Department of Public Health will still have the ability to reject CNA license applicants on a case by case basis when individual circumstances merit it. This will finally strike a proper balance between protecting the public and leveling the playing field for individuals with criminal records.
Although this new law is limited in scope, it is expected to have a big impact, especially for women. While men are more likely to be able to find work in fields like construction or manual labor where criminal records are not a big barrier, women traditionally work more in care positions, many of which had been closed to women with criminal records. Almost 90 percent of CNAs are women. Now, more women will have access to steady jobs as CNAs that will enable them to earn a living wage and become stable members of society following a criminal conviction.
Of course, individuals with criminal records will still face significant discrimination. One possible way to evade this is to seek an expungement. An expungement will erase the record of a conviction from the public eye, so that employers will no longer see it when running background checks. However, the police and the courts will still have a record of it.
In the state of California, almost all kinds of convictions are eligible for expungement, provided that the individual did not serve time in prison. So if you have recently successfully completed your probation, you are most likely eligible for expungement. Contact Chambers Law Firm today to learn more about the process.
