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A local for-profit college is offering free training for prospective nurse assistants, but the program is not open to people with convictions. That’s within the law, but advocates for people who have been incarcerated say the college is being “unnecessarily exclusive.
”Occupational licenses are required for a variety of jobs, including real estate agents, paramedics, and nurse assistants. Barring people with convictions from training programs can serve to keep them from securing gainful employment.After a student completes their education, they must apply for any required license or certification. The corresponding government board or agency often conducts a background check and ‘good moral character’ evaluation.” The California Department of Public Health says there are “no automatic disqualifying penal codes for certificate applicants.” The program offers classroom and hands-on training where students can learn best practices, along with the legal responsibilities involved in this form of care. Prestige Career College — with campuses in Huntington Park, Pomona, and Van Nuys — also promises to prepare students for the state certification exam and to help them find work. The college can afford to provide the program for free because it’s funded in part by California’s Employment Development Department , which administers unemployment benefits and workforce development programs. To qualify for Prestige’s program, prospective students must be unemployed or have a part-time job. They also can’t have felonies on their record. The college hasn’t responded to multiple requests for interviews. But in a country where occupational licenses are increasingly required for entry into a number of fields, advocates say excluding formerly incarcerated students can serve to keep them from securing gainful employment. Plus, in California, a conviction does not automatically bar you from becoming a nurse assistant. EDD has given Prestige Career College more than $4 million. In an email, the state agency said its partnership with the college dates back to 2022, and that it’s set to expire next spring. In a follow up email, EDD said it “can’t speak to a provider’s admission criteria or process.”— also known as the “ban the box” law — generally bars employers with five or more workers from asking a job candidate about conviction history before making a job offer.But the law specifically exempts a ban “for purposes of an application for a professional degree or law enforcement basic training courses and programs.” Beth Avery, a program director at the National Employment Law Project, said that's why Prestige likely falls outside the scope of both laws, as a “workforce development program” — non-credit certificate classes that can be located within a college but follow different rules., also offer nurse assistant programs. These programs tend to be tuition-free, but students may have to pay for other essentials, including textbooks, uniforms, and physical exams. These programs also require background checks — but this doesn’t mean students with convictions can’t participate. In separate emails, spokespeople for Santa Ana College and Santa Monica College said LiveScan results are sent directly to the California Department of Public Health. "There are no automatic disqualifying penal codes for certificate applicants. If the results of your live scan return with a conviction, our department will contact you by mail to request additional information as needed." According to Avery, after a person with a record gains their education, “they must then apply for any required license or certification. The government board or agency often conducts a background check and ‘good moral character’ evaluation.” So while a college like Prestige can deny people with felony convictions, “in general, it sounds like is unnecessarily exclusive,” Avery said. “While an educational institution should absolutely provide accurate information to their students about whether a past record might prevent a student from ultimately working in their chosen profession, not every record will prevent a person from working in a field like ." By excluding anyone with a record, Avery said, the school would be preventing potentially eligible nurse assistants from obtaining their education and training.Rebecca Oyama, director of East Bay Community Law Center’s clinical program in Berkeley, is a legal advocate who helps people with records overcome such barriers.went into effect in 2020, she told LAist, there are a lot of limitations on what certification boards may consider when making a decision about a formerly incarcerated applicant. But there’s another quirk, she said: For prospective certified nurse assistants, the law actually changed in 2015. In the past, certain convictions led to automatic disqualification. Now, Oyama said, the California Department of Public Health is “required to consider evidence of rehabilitation before denying someone’s application because of a conviction.”AB 2138 “opened the doors for many people in California,” Oyama added. “But there are still many boards that were not subject to that change, and there's a lot of work to be done now by the legislature.”
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