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 Agencies3/7/12 NACCRRA’s National Policy Symposium

© 2012 National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies 2 of 15 (slides) Overview Overview: Children’s Safety GAO Reports Pending Legislation Florida – Digital Prints Live-Scan ??

© 2012 National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies 3 of 15 (slides) 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 © 2009 National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies 4 of 15 (slides)

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 © 2009 National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies 5 of 15 (slides)

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). © 2012 National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies 6 of 15 (slides)

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 © 2009 National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies 7 of 15 (slides)

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 © 2009 National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies 8 of 15 (slides)

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. © 2009 National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies 9 of 15 (slides)

© 2012 National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies 10 of 15 (slides) 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.

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 © 2012 National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies 11 of 15 (slides)

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 © 2012 National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies 12 of 15 (slides)

Next Steps Take Action! 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 by Rep. Carson; H.R by Rep. Moore; H.R by Rep. Ruppersberger] © 2012 National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies 13 of 15 (slides)