I am a new dad to be in about 4 weeks. We are looking at child care and have found an at home day care and I need to know if it is legal to run a background check or if I should even bother. A friend refered her but her children do not stay there. What should I do?

Thanks in Advance,

Richard

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Whatever you feel you need to do to check a facility is appropriate. We suggest you contact your state's licensing agency and inquire if any complaints have been filed. Please see: https://www.daycare.com/states.html

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Iwould also ask for references from the potential provider along with sitting in and see how the provider takes care of the children.

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You can also ask your local Department of Child Services for an application for the provider to fill out. The DCS can do a check for any personal reports on the provider. A criminal/background check will not show reports of neglect/environmental or medical if the person wasn't charged. I am a social worker and I can tell you that most parents who have a history with social services were not charged and the case was dealt with DCS only. I have only had a few cases where the prosecuter took action. Example: If children were found wondering outside and it was reported there most likely would not be criminal charges. Arrests and Criminal charges are what shows up on a background check where DCS reports are confidential.

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Most licensed daycare's can't get a license w/o a background check-so save your money-the county already did it-you can call your local daycare licensing department and ask if the provider IS licensed-and just add in-and I assume the background check was done as well? In my preschool, all who work, have a background check, anyone over 13 must get one-GOOD LUCK NEW DADDY-not all providers are bad :-) but YES do your homework-

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All licensed family child care providers go through a background study where the local police and state Bureau of Criminal records have been checked for the last 5 years, according to where the provider lived. A social services record check has also been completed on the provider to check if there are any adult or child abuse and neglect records. These studies are completed on anyone 13 years of age, or older, working or living in the child care residence.

The provider needs to follow through with the State regulations for licensure. These rules set limits on the number and ages of children allowed in care, set safety regulations regarding the physical environment, sanitation and health, water, food, and nutrition, set guidelines and limits regarding behavior guidance and activities and equipment, regulate the caregiver qualifications and training needed, regulates forms needed on children , reporting laws , and negative licensing actions that may take place with a license

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i like it very much trying to

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As a private person, you can run a background check on anyone. There is no law against it.

However, as an employer (even for a babysitter), you need to get the person's permission to run a background check on them. This is required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which puts that requirement on any employer. The easiest way to get their permission is just to include a permission form (or paragraph) in the job application that you have them fill out and sign. For a host of reasons, you should definitely have them fill out a job application while they are in your presence. That way they cannot take it home to make up a bunch of plausible lies. If the do not want to give you permission to run the background check, then you do not want to hire them.

Criminal records are kept by the Clerk of Courts in each courthouse. We know there are 50 states, 3000 counties, and about 30,000 cities, towns, or townships in the United States. Every city, town, county, state, and the federal government may their have own courthouses. That is a lot of courthouses. However, you are allowed to review it their information because it is all public information. If you know where the subject person has lived and traveled, then you know which courthouse records to criminal background search.

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It is legal to get a background check. Licensed providers have background check and FBI finger printing (I don't know in how many states or the legal requirements.) Check with licensing and a childcare referral place nearest to you.

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Hi Richard,

You can use nanny background check before you hire any person. Its better to get safe. Now you can avoid time and money wasted. Its my best suggestion.

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Hi! Congrats for being a new dad. I would suggest that you run a background check even the home day care has been referred to you by a friend. Conducting a background check before entrusting your child to any entity is the safest and the right thing to do.

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As a provider, it has been suggested to me to do background checks on the parents also. Having parents from several different families coming into my home daily, there is cause to be concerned. Just as the parent doesn't know the provider, the provider doesn't know the parents. Can't be too safe anymore.

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I would strongly suggest getting references. Especially from people who she watched their children into the 4-6 year old age. (They can talk then) It's very hard to leave your baby with basically a stranger. Most of my parents have been referred to me by previous parents, and I have alot of "repeat" business. Parents coming back when they have another baby. Try picking the baby up at different times, just to get a feel for things when she is not expecting you. Also, see how the other children act towards her. Good luck. I stayed home after having my third child and it was the best decision ever. I know how hard it is to put faith in someone else over such a precious baby.

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I disagree. DCS/DFCS/DFSC/CPS (child protective people) will show up at your door,take away your kids and make you take tests and evalutions to determine if your really a fit parent, even if it based on FALSE allegations. The CPS workers will not know if some flase allegations are ever ture,so they have to do their jobs and on their paperwork when all is said and done and the kids come back home after the parents ace the parenting class and mental evaluations,etc.. (and kids are now emotionally traumatized by being seperated from their parents,at NO fault of their parents) it will say something like the "risk has been sugnificantly lowered" and is "now safe for children to be returned home" . I believe child abuse is for the poilce to be handled. If CPS has investigated of COURSE they will have on file that parent as having done something wrong, even from a anonymous caller,because they will not admitt that they are wrong,because they will never know if that anonymous caller was telling the truth unless they took a lie dectector test,so they have to assume that person is tellnig the turth for the safelty of the child. They don't want that liability of saying, on paperwork ," allegation unproven we are sorry we were wrong" They already have enough lawsuites to deal with these days . Plus you do NOT get due process in or a jury in court to fight them, you are not allowed to prove your self "innocent" or DIS prove the allegations, they jsut don't let you period. your not given the right. It's guilty until proven innocent,yet you have this "file" in the system that makes you look like a bad parent.
I get that is one way in how they work,and how they try tp protect kids who "might" be at risk,etc..etc.. because of allegations,but what's messed up about that is because nothing is ever proved or disproved, that mother or father is going to be in cps records and let's say they are the most loving parents in the whole world and would never abuse/neglect a child according to ANYones standards of what is considered abuse/neglect... but lets say they want to become a day care provider or foster parent themselves... their dream may be ruined forever because of that one anonymous caller who may have done it out of spite,and was very convincing towards the cps workers.
And so a parent looking for good child care might do this cps check,and guess what, there's another way of ruining the chance for this parent to provide a loving envirnment.
Don't give me "well cps wouldn't be called unless it was serious,or the parent wasn't already donig something wrong" WRONG !
Also, as a side note,parents I URGE you to visit these websites for your own childs sake. You never know this may happen to you. As daycare providers, you all know sometimes things get blown out of porportion,or even someone might think the wrong thing bout something they know nothing about.... Please do your homework,know your rights, or rights you don't actually have I should say. Don't bleieve someone jsut because you see them as a hero or someone who works for the gov. the gov is corrupt ,and so are they,even if they don't tihnk they are and are just some social worker (in their mind) trying to make a difference. here are some links. NO ,they are not propeganda. Do a google search look around online,look on youtube, you'll find that this is happenning everywhere. Why would everyone in the us who do not know one another have the same kinds of storys to tell. You make your own decision,and if you don't bleieve it i will feel sorry for your family, because when it happens to you (false allegations ) it will be a big eye opener.
This site is very informational :
http://www.nccpr.org/

http://www.squidoo.com/fightcpsvideos#module12496422

http://kidjacked.com/about.asp

here is some more videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2GGqMPzJjE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQzEOeAT_Fo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrS2qzk8S10

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You should definitely run a background check, even the government has mandatory background check for any job involving children and the elderly, there have been numerous cases of kidnapping and crimes that could have been prevented with background checks..

Here is an ABC news report of a father failing to perform a background check on his child's nanny, and a case was filed against him for negligence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8zGxqQ8QEo

Hope you take the people advices here and just run that background check, it'll just cost you a couple of bucks, and it will be worth it. don't go for those free ones! They just dish out a lot of BS.

Free background check information - Don't be a Victim.

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Like I said before, background checks for parents too should be required then.

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