Background checks run on just 5% of Nevada daycare workers

Mind Your Business came across some shocking news earlier this week regarding daycare workers in the US. News4 reported that only 5% of new daycare workers in Nevada have their background checks for abuse and neglect completed on time when they start work.

That was just one of several scary facts uncovered in a recent investigation by the Legislative Auditor of Nevada. That report reads: “there is an increased risk to the health and safety of children at child care facilities.” Out of 50 case studies of state inspections of child care facilities, the auditors found state inspectors were late at conducting checks 14% of the time – with some site visits running eight months behind the legal requirements.

14% of the time? Eight months behind the legal requirements? Are these figures that parents would want to hear? Ultimately, as News4 says: “You may not know who is taking care of your children.”

Auditors did a random check of 20-employees at facilities around the state. They discovered of those 20, 19 were not given timely background checks. While it would therefore be unfair to attribute the 5% figure across the whole state – in this small sample, it was a 95% failure rate.

Government Response

Wendy Simons,  Chief of the State Bureau of Healthcare Quality and Compliance, said: “An agency can’t catch everything, but a parent placing a child in care can say, I’d like to see your records of notification and the fact that your employees have been checked.”

Simons also says that she is going to ask lawmakers to create tougher penalties for facilities failing to report new employees on time. She believes that will cut down on a lot of this problem.

What we can take from this is the hope that this is not an epidemic across the county, and was simply an anomaly in the Nevada criminal background screening process. For more information on daycare background checks, or employment checks as a whole, get in touch with us today – we’d love to hear from you.