Gaps exist in pre-K background checks

Vermont regulators say they have no way of knowing if everyone who works with children in private pre-kindergarten programs have submitted to fingerprint-based background checks required by law.

The Vermont Department for Children and Families previously said the state is facing a backlog in processing fingerprints taken from pre-K staff necessary for checking out-of-state criminal records. Now department spokeswoman Luciana DiRuocco says the state can't say for certain that everyone required to do so has submitted a set of fingerprints.

"We don’t necessarily know who’s missing," DiRuocco told the Free Press. "Maybe there’s also people who do need to be fingerprinted but they haven’t been yet because they haven’t sent us their application."

DiRuocco was unable to say how DCF makes sure only providers who have passed the full background checks are allowed to be alone with children.

Under Act 166 which went into effect this summer, the state pays for up to 10 hours of pre-K per week for Vermont's 3-, 4-, and 5- year-olds attending a public or a "prequalified" private program — a program that offers pre-K educational services.

The law also requires anybody who works in a pre-K program and will be alone with children to submit their fingerprints to check national and out-of-state databases for criminal records, DiRuocco said. The fingerprint checks are in addition to Vermont-based background checks which were already required for all pre-K providers.

According to a September memo issued by Agency of Education Secretary Rebecca Holcombe, the licensee for each program is responsible for ensuring that people who have not gone through the fingerprint-supported background check are never alone with children.

Some school systems have had longstanding relationships with private providers and were able to seamlessly comply with the Act 166 regulation, Holcombe wrote. "In some other regions, it has been more difficult to initiate and complete the fingerprint process, and more difficult to verify the universe of private partners who need to be cleared."

Tanya LaChapelle, who runs the Robin's Nest Children's Center in Burlington, said she's been receiving a flurry of emails containing mixed messages over the past few months from the state about the fingerprinting process.

While providers see the importance of it, she said, the process has been rolled out in a way that has become frustrating for pre-K providers.

"At this point we're just laughing about it," she said.

There are 12 workers at Robin's Nest that needed to be fingerprinted. One is still waiting to get her appointment at the police station in order to have her fingerprints taken, LaChapelle said. It can take six weeks to get results back after the fingerprints are sent to the Vermont Crime Information Center.

Right now, LaChapelle has been able to have staff who haven't been cleared work under the supervision of workers who have, she said. That works out all right for them, but she said she thinks other centers may be struggling under the requirement.

The staff at pre-K programs at public schools came under the fingerprinting requirement last year, overseen by the Vermont Agency of Education. All public school teachers undergo a fingerprint check when they're hired, according to Agency of Education spokeswoman Haley Dover.

School district superintendents are obligated to ensure that the requirement has been met, Dover said. If something bad happens to a child, the district would be liable if it had failed to perform the fingerprint check, and superintendents could lose their jobs and their licenses.

"This substantial risk alone is a very strong incentive, and it is one of which our Superindendents are extremely aware," Dover wrote in an email to the Free Press.

She later added that school districts could be sued if something were to happen at a pre-K under contract with a school district. Private pre-Ks, because school districts serve as a conduit for funds between the state and privately owned pre-Ks, could be considered under contracts with those school districts.

"Upon advice of legal counsel, it was not worth the risk to compromise child safety to implement Pre-K payments unless the fingerprints were done," Dover wrote.

But LaChapelle said she's gotten a different message from the school districts that pay her.

Some asked her to sign a letter saying she would take responsibility for getting her staff fingerprinted and ensuring those who have yet to be cleared are not alone with children. One wanted her to submit a list of her staff who have been fingerprinted, and wanted to wait to pay the state funds for pre-K until all of her staff had completed the process, but eventually ended up paying her, she said.

"They're accepting my word on this," she said.

Sonja Raymond, who runs a pre-K program in Lamoille County, said schools she works with have said they will not pay her the pre-K funds until everyone on her 22-employee staff has been cleared.

That last clearance happened last Friday. In the meantime, she's had to talk to parents about the districts declining to pay the pre-school while the state processes the fingerprints.

"The only way a parent would know is if a provider said there's an issue," she said.

Stacy Lessor has a child at a Burlington-based private pre-K. She said she had not heard about the fingerprinting initiative, but said she thought it was a great idea.

"The more security, the better," she said.

Mabika Goma said he was in the process of finding a school for his 3-year-old. He went through the process himself when he worked at a Winooski school as part of his doctorate in education and said he would want to know all the staff at his daughter's school had gone through the background check as well.

The state's criminal information center is backlogged because so many providers needed to be fingerprinted for the first time this summer, DiRuocco said.

DiRuocco was unable to say whether everyone required to be fingerprinted has filed the proper paperwork. Checking the names of those who passed their background checks against staff lists of providers is ineffective because not everyone who works for a pre-K needs to be fingerprinted.

Only staff who work with children unsupervised need to submit their fingerprints, she said.

All licensed child care workers will have to have the fingerprint-based background checks done within the next two years, said Reeva Murphy, the deputy commissioner in charge of the Child Development Division of DCF. That's because of a new federal rule.

Right now, the state is prioritizing getting pre-K providers cleared.

"Staff in all other Family Child Care Homes and Center Based Child Care Programs will continue to use the current background check process which does NOT include fingerprinting until further notice," according to a July memo sent by DCF.

DiRuocco said if parents are concerned about the staff at their children's pre-K, they should reach out to program directors to find out who has been cleared.

"They will have that information," she said.

Murphy said her department lacked the authority to conduct fingerprint-supported background checks until this fall, when the new guidelines went into effect.

Only one person has failed so far to her knowledge, she said. The crime that disqualified the provider was "tech fraud" in New Hampshire. She pointed to the long list of disqualifying crimes in Vermont as keeping children safe.

The Child Development Division has cleared a thousand providers but is still getting "waves" of packets from the Vermont Crime Information Center.

"The implementation has not been as smooth as we'd like," Murhpy said.

Disclosure: Agency of Education spokeswoman Haley Dover is a former Burlington Free Press reporter.

This story first appeared online on Nov. 1, 2016. Contact Jess Aloe at 802-660-1874 or jaloe@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jess_aloe