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(USGovernment-News.Com, December 31, 2013 ) Savannah, GA – A new state law requiring Georgia childcare facility employees to undergo a national fingerprint-based background check begins January 1st, 2013. Currently, employees are only required to go through a name search of Georgia records.
All new employees hired on or after January 1st will be required to have a satisfactory national background check based on their fingerprint. Existing employees hired before January 1st will have until 2017 to meet the requirement. However, should an employee choose to move to a new facility they will have to undergo the fingerprint-based background check.
Georgia is home to 6,000 childcare facilities. According to Bobby Cagle. Commissioner of Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning "We expect around 20,000 of the 60,000 child care employees in Georgia to have background checks in the first year," he told WBTV.
The bill which was sponsored by state representative Alan Peake was supported in testimony by the Georgia Child Care Association, VOICES for Georgia’s Children, Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students, the Interfaith Children’s Movement, and Quality Care of Children.
In a 2011 Government Accountability Office report compared social security numbers obtained from the Department of Justice’s National Sex Offender registry to numbers in employment databases in 20 states and the District of Columbia. During the check, 24 potential cases of registered sex offenders were working in child care programs. Additionally, a 2003 study of the Federal Child Safety Pilot program found that of more than 30,000 fingerprint-based background checks conducted, about 6.4 percent of volunteers who sought to work with children were found to have criminal records.
Keeping a child safe from harm’s way and reducing the risk of a daycare accident includes hiring well-trained, trustworthy, and responsible staff members. Additionally, the right childcare facility is one that obeys the law and performs the appropriate background checks.
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