A new law set out to keep criminals from caring for your kids is causing some snags in the hiring process, one state agency and a local daycare director say.
Nancy Dreicer, CEO of Chappell Schools, said day cares are experiencing long delays while waiting for out-of-state background results to come in.
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“It was like a tsunami of regulation hit us,” Dreicer said.
Before the new law, child care providers checked criminal records through a state and FBI database. All states are required to share criminal records with the FBI.
“We go through the FBI database. Why isn’t that good enough?” Dreicer said.
But now, if a potential employee has worked in another state in the last five years, the person, or the provider, must track down those records from each state themselves within 45 days or else that employee has to be let go.
The Florida Department of Children and Families said there are 5,439 applicants who are waiting for out-of-state criminal history results since the new law went into effect on July 1. The circumstances behind each pending application are unknown. But Dreicer believes the problem is widespread and directly linked to the new law.
Dreicer said she has full confidence in the FBI’s database and thinks obtaining records from other states could work if the process was streamlined. Right now, nearly every state works differently.
“We want everybody super safe that works here in the system. But that’s not what’s happening. We are having to fire people who were safe in the system because they don’t clear in the 45 days and the law actual says we have to fire them,” Dreicer said.
Dreicer has met with Sen. Bill Nelson's office and Florida Gov. Rick Scott's office to try to see how she can make the system better for everyone.
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DCF’s full statement: "The Department of Children and Families first priority is the safety of children and ensuring that licensed childcare providers do not have criminal histories is an important safety measure. In order to accommodate the temporary increase in background screening requests as a result of new laws, DCF has added additional resources to ensure that services continue to be provided in a timely manner.
"As of today, we are processing FSFN results for non-criminal checks that were received on April 24th. This puts us within a 5 day turn around window. Approximately 85% of applicants do not have criminal background results. For applicants who have a criminal history result, the longest pending screen is since April 19th. 92% are pending for five days or less.
"The timing for those applicants who have lived out of state in the last five years is much more difficult to estimate because those records are held out of state and the department must rely on those states to provide data. For applicants who are waiting out of state criminal history results, Clearinghouse (CLH) data shows that 5,439 remain pending since the new law went into effect on July 1, 2016.
"While applicants are waiting for the out-of-state results, if the individual meets the Florida Level 2 screening requirements, DCF may grant provisional hiring status for 45 days while the out-of-state check is pending. During provisional employment, the individual must be in the line of sight of an employee who has already met all screening/training requirements.
"Background: On November 19, 2014, the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014 was signed into law. The new law prescribes health and safety requirements that include changes to background screening requirements that apply to all child care providers and requires more information be available to parents and the general public about child care choices. The new federal requirements required changes to Florida law governing screening for child care employment. Beginning July 1, 2016, new elements were included in a background screening for all child care personnel which include searches of the National Sex Offender Registry, state criminal records, state sex offender registries, and child abuse and neglect registries of all states in which the child care personnel resided during the preceding five years."
Cox Media Group
