Criminal Background Check Law Would Require Childcare Providers’ Fingerprints
Should childcare providers have to undergo a criminal background check?
Federal legislation currently pending in the House of Representatives would require childcare providers throughout the country to undergo background checks, including FBI fingerprint checks. Currently, only 10 states require childcare providers to undergo fingerprint checks.
Federal law currently requires that workers at daycare centers on military installations and Head Start programs undergo fingerprint checks, but the recent proposal is the first that would require the checks for all childcare providers.
The bill would prevent people from becoming childcare providers if they have been convicted of certain crimes, such as child abuse or other violent offenses. It would require background checks every five years and give providers 30 days to appeal a denial.
About $36 of the cost to complete the background checks could be passed on to providers. In addition, states that don't comply with the new law would face a 2 percent reduction in federal childcare funds.
The bill under consideration is being proposed by Rep. Gwen Moore, a Milwaukee Democrat. According to an article by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a recent investigation revealed that almost 500 childcare providers throughout Wisconsin have criminal records.
While a recent law requires childcare providers in Wisconsin to undergo background checks, those checks do not include fingerprints.
During February, Gov. Jim Doyle approved a law that made reforms to the state's childcare program, which is supported by taxpayer money. The law states that childcare providers must undergo background checks every three months, but a proposal to include fingerprint checks was turned down.
Unfortunately, as one background check advocacy group thinks, the state's new law does not do enough to close the gap.
The National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies, a group that advocates for agencies that refers parents to daycare centers, says that childcare providers with a criminal history have an incentive to give false information.
"There are a lot of ways to game the system and get around a name check, but there is not a way to get around a fingerprint check," NACCRRA Executive Director Linda Smith said in the article.