(a) Commencing July 1, 2005, and except as provided by subdivision (b), the Department of Justice shall accept fingerprint images and related information to process criminal offender record information requests for employment, licensing, certification, custodial child placement, or adoption purposes, only if those images and related information are electronically transmitted. The department shall continually monitor the statewide availability of electronic transmission sights and work with public and private entities to ensure reasonable availability is maintained.
(b) The department shall, based on the regional unavailability of electronic transmission sites or when departmental processing procedures show a need, accept hard fingerprint cards in order to process criminal offender record information requests for employment, licensing, certification, custodial child placement, or adoption purposes.