New regulations for workers who care for children
- The way it is now: Until Jan. 1, a name-based check is all that is required for licensed child-care workers. It is only based on Georgia records. These background checks are performed at a local law enforcement agencies. The cost ranges from $5 to $25, depending on the agency involved.
- How it will be: After Jan. 1, all new child-care workers are required to have a fingerprint-based, federal background check. Current child-care workers will have until 2017 or until they move to another child care facility to comply. The fee is $52.75 DECAL will provide the applicant instructions for fingerprinting. DECAL officials will receive the results and make the fitness determination.
Source: Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning
Can something be done to make thousands of Georgia’s youngest children a little safer, and at no cost to taxpayers?
State lawmakers and child-care regulators hope so.
Earlier this year, they pushed through a law requiring child-care workers to pass a national background check based on their fingerprints. It takes effect, for some, Jan. 1.
The fear was that the existing — and only — criminal background screening for child-care staffers, a name-based search of Georgia records, might not protect children from predators.
“It’s all about the safety of the children,” said state Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, the law’s sponsor. “I personally want to make sure those that are working in day care have been vetted and there have been sufficient background checks to make sure an employee hasn’t fallen through the cracks and has had a felony conviction from another state.”
That has happened, at least once. In Fall 2012, an anonymous complaint to the state said two staff members working as directors/owners of a Macon child-care program had criminal records in Florida. Officials confirmed the pair had been arrested on multiple felony charges in theft-related cases, but that did not show up on their Georgia criminal records check, said Reg Griffin, a spokesman for Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning.
“The Macon case gave us a current, tangible case illustrating the need” for the fingerprint background checks, Griffin said.
The fingerprint-based national background check will be mandatory for new hires as of Jan. 1. Current workers are exempt until 2017, or earlier if they move to another job in child care.
Currently, these deeper background checks are only required now for child care center owners and directors.
They cost $52.75 per person, an expense that falls to the child-care center owner or employee. But they’re much more extensive than the very limited, less expensive, state background check that Georgia’s 60,000 front-line child care workers have faced.
“Parents have been quite surprised this was not already being done,” said Pam Tatum, president and CEO of the nonprofit Quality Care for Children.
Nationally, 12 states require full background checks of child-care workers — including federal and state criminal background checks, as well as searches of the child-abuse and sex-offender registries, according to the nonprofit Child Care Aware of America. Bills have been introduced in Congress to make fingerprint-based checks mandatory at all child-care centers, or at minimum for those that receive federal subsidies.
Tatum said that, without a national background check, “we don’t know who is working in our child-care facilities.
“I think there is a real risk that children are being exposed to individuals that they shouldn’t be around,” she said.
At Sheltering Arms Early Education & Family Centers, a chain of 15 child-care centers in metro Atlanta serving 24,000 children, staff is working out “the logistics” of having employees go through the new background-check process, said Paige Kubik, vice president for development and communication.
Ama Covan, who works at a Sheltering Arms in Chamblee, believes the fingerprint-based background check is a good idea.
“We are taking another step to make sure our children are safe — and not just the children, but the teachers as well,” Covan said. “I don’t think it is ever a bad idea to be extra safe. We can’t ever be too safe.”
State officials said the cost of the fingerprint-based background check was a major consideration in the decision to allow a phase-in period for current workers. Many child-care centers are struggling financially due to the economy and have small profit margins in the best of times.
Tatum said she expects many current workers will have the federal background checks well before the 2017 deadline. “The high-quality programs will want to be able to tell parents they’ve done it,” she said.
Bobby Cagle, DECAL’s commissioner, said that with a 30 percent annual turnover in the child-care industry, state officials expect around 20,000 of Georgia’s estimated 60,000 child-care employees to have background checks in the first year.
State background checks in most cases will no longer be required, something child advocates see as less than ideal.
“We recommend both,” said Michelle Noth McCready, director of policy for Child Care America, a national group working to strengthen child-care laws and provide education to parents, providers and others about child care. “The state and federal give a better picture of the criminal history.”
The new law requires that child-care providers have a fingerprint-based background check every five years. DECAL receives the results of the background checks and determines if the person “should be allowed in the facility while children are there for care,” Griffin said.
About the Author
