1. A. The Criminal Offender Employment Act is not applicable to:

   1. (1) any law enforcement agency;
   2. (2) the early childhood education and care department for consideration of an applicant for licensure, registration or employment at a child care facility;
   3. (3) an agency for consideration of an applicant for employment as a caregiver or hospital caregiver subject to the Caregivers Criminal History Screening Act [29-17-2 to 29-17-5 NMSA 1978];
   4. (4) the children, youth and families department; and
   5. (5) the public education department for consideration of an applicant for licensure under the School Personnel Act [Chapter 22, Article 10A NMSA 1978].
2. B. Nothing in the Criminal Offender Employment Act shall be construed to preclude an exempt agency in its discretion from adopting the policy set forth in that act.
3. C. An agency exempted pursuant to Subsection A of this section shall promulgate rules related to criminal history screening for the purpose of determining eligibility.

History: 1953 Comp., § 41-24-5, enacted by Laws 1974, ch. 78, § 5; 2025, ch. 61, § 1.

ANNOTATIONS

The 2025 amendment, effective April 7, 2025, provided that the Criminal Offender Employment Act does not apply to certain agencies, and required exempt agencies to promulgate rules related to criminal history screening; in the section heading, after "Nonapplicability to" deleted "law enforcement"; added new subsection designations "A" and "B"; in Subsection A, added new paragraph designation "(1)" and added Paragraphs A(2) through A(5); in Subsection B, after "Nothing" deleted "herein" and added "in the Criminal Offender Employment Act" and after "preclude" deleted "a law enforcement" and added "an exempt"; and added Subsection C.