There are plenty of news stories out there that demonstrate the importance of conducting good background checks into people who run daycares. A woman in Texas, for instance, recently plead guilty to a charge of murder for the death of a 16-month-old child in a fire that resulted from her leaving a pan of oil heating on the stove when she left her at home daycare facility to go to the store. In other instances, it has been discovered after abuse was rooted out that the daycare worker already had a history of abusing children and had evaded a proper background check.
Background checks are intrinsic parts of how any good daycare center does business. When you’re looking around for a daycare center for your child, make certain that you ask them some pertinent questions about how to conduct background checks.
Work History
Anybody working at a daycare should be able to account for their complete work history. If there are gaps in their work history, those must be filled in before they can be deemed to be safe to be around children. Any daycare center that does not take this hard of a look at their workers may be demonstrating negligence.
Criminal History
In the case of the Texas woman who ended up pleading guilty to murder, she had already pled guilty to a charge of arson as a juvenile and that information was not discovered until the trial. She would not have been issued a license to run a daycare if this had been known by regulatory agencies. Anybody with this type of criminal history should not be around children and any competent daycare facility will conduct extensive background checks.
Licensing
If you take your child to an unlicensed daycare, you are taking a horrible risk. An unlicensed daycare means that nobody has come in to inspect the facility to make certain that it is safe for the number of children that are being cared for there and that none of the employees are checked to make certain that they have adequate training to work with children. Any good daycare facility will make diligent checks into the background of their workers as far as licensing goes.
Daycare abuse is unacceptable. If your child is the victim of daycare abuse, talk to an attorney about filing a lawsuit and getting compensation for your child for what they have been put through by the daycare facility.