Background Checks:

Ensuring Children are Safe in Child Care

By Michelle Noth, Senior State & Local Advisor, NACCRRA

© 2012 National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies 3/7/12 NACCRRA’s National Policy Symposium

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Overview

Overview:

• Children’s Safety• GAO Reports • Pending Legislation• Florida – Digital Prints• Live-Scan ??

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Children’s Safety

• Nearly 11 million children under age 5 are in child care every week.

• Many are in settings with no provider background check or just a partial check.

• It’s not about the providers. It’s about the kids.• Children should be safe in child care.

State Requirements

What do states require?

• Only 9 states require a comprehensive background check for family child care home providers

• Only 11 states require a comprehensive background check for workers at child care centers

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http://www.naccrra.org/public-policy/policy-issues/background-checks

Background Check Components

Comprehensive Background Checks:

• Fingerprints against state records• Fingerprints against FBI records• A check of the child abuse & neglect registry• A check of the sex offender registry

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Components of Background Checks

Why are all 4 checks necessary?

• State records do not include federal records (or other state records)

• FBI checks are good to check for other states as well as federal databases

• Substantiated cases of child abuse & neglect do not necessarily lead to criminal convictions

• National Sex Offender Public Website is incomplete.(only 15 states, 16 tribes and 2 territories are in compliance).

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GAO Report

2011 GAO report:

• GAO compared social security #s from the National Sex Offender registry with state employment records in 20 states.

• They found 24 suspect cases

• People convicted of serious sexual offenses working in child care

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GAO Focus

GAO focused on 10 cases in 8 states plus DC

• 8 were selected from open source information

• 2 were selected from SSN matches

Seven of the 10 offenders had previously targeted children

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GAO Report

Among the cases GAO found:• Operators of a licensed program in DC hired their son as a janitor

even though he had been convicted of attempting to sexually abuse a very young girl.

• An IL woman allowed her husband to live at her home child care even though he had prior convictions for sexual assault and abuse.

• A woman in NC allowed her husband and son, both of whom were convicted for taking indecent liberties with a minor, to reside in the home where she was providing child care.

• A SC program hired a contractor to work at 6 child care facilities who was convicted of sexual battery.

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HHS Office of Child Care Information Memorandum

HHS issued an “information memorandum” to states, urging them to require comprehensive checks.

• For providers licensed and legally exempt if they are serving CCDBG children

• Licensed providers• Any other people who have regular unsupervised access

to children• Lead agencies have discretion on relatives.

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/occ/law/guidance/current/im2011-05/im2011-05.htm

Conducting Background Checks

• Many devices are available to organizations and the public for conducting background checks

• LiveScan – allows fingerprints to be taken electronically and sent to law enforcement

• Ease of use

• Costs of scanning equipment and conducting background checks

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Presenters

Today we are going to hear from Florida where Live Scan is used. We will also hear from Advanced Livescan Technology, Inc.

• Ron Cox, Policy Specialist, Florida Department of Children and Families

• Kevin Burke, Advanced Livescan Inc

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Next Steps

Take Action! http://capwiz.com/naccrra/home/

Background Checks: – For Senators: Please cosponsor Senator Burr’s child care provider background

check legislation. Federal funds should not be used to pay convicted felons and sex offenders to provide child care. [S. 581]

– For House members: There are three pending child care provider background check bills. They are worded differently, but all require a comprehensive background check for child care providers. Federal funds should not be used to pay convicted felons or sex offenders to provide child care. [H.R. 1711 by Rep. Carson; H.R. 3829 by Rep. Moore; H.R. 1726 by Rep. Ruppersberger]

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