Section 6000.100  Employment of Carnival and Amusement Enterprise Workers

a)         All persons that own or operate a carnival, amusement enterprise, or fair must conduct a criminal history records check and perform a check of the National Sex Offender Public Website (http://www.nsopw.gov) for carnival or amusement enterprise workers.  This check must be performed annually for workers. The only exception to the requirement for the annual check is for workers who remain in the continuous employment of the entity.  A worker who works only during the season but works each season is not exempt from the annual check.  The annual check for a seasonal employee must be performed before the employee commences active employment each season.

b)         No person that owns or operates a carnival, amusement enterprise, or fair shall employ a carnival or amusement enterprise worker who has been convicted of any offense set forth in Article 11 of the Criminal Code of 1961 or the Criminal Code of 2012 [720 ILCS 5], is a registered sex offender as defined in the Sex Offender Registration Act [730 ILCS 150], or has ever been convicted of any offense set forth in Article 9 of the Criminal Code of 1961 or 2012.

c)         In order to comply with Section 2-20(c) of the Act requiring and maintaining a substance abuse policy that must include random drug testing, the owner or operator of the carnival, amusement enterprise, or fair must demonstrate the policy is enforced in practice.  The policy must be in writing and must have been distributed to all affected employees, and there must be records documenting that employees have undergone random drug testing.  The requirements of the Act are not satisfied if the random drug testing procedure has not been implemented in practice. 

d)         An owner or operator who conducts the background checks required by subsections (a) and (b), using false personal information submitted by a carnival or amusement enterprise worker for criminal history records check purposes, commits a violation of this Section if the owner or operator knew or reasonably should have known that the information was falsified. [430 ILCS 82/2-20]

e)         In order to comply with Section 2-20 (h) of the Act at all times that an amusement ride or amusement attraction is in use an owner or operator shall ensure that at least one employee working on site has been certified to provide first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). [430 ILCS 85/2-20]

(Source:  Amended at 49 Ill. Reg. 6097, effective April 25, 2025)