An Indiana Senate committee approved by a 9-0 vote on Tuesday new legislation that requires a national background check be run on all prospective employees of Indiana schools. Before the passing of this new law, Indian school corporations could run their own background checks and could choose whether they wanted statewide-only checks run or national background checks. With this legislation, schools no longer have the option to choose a statewide-only background check and must require that all applicants for positions at Indiana schools pay to have a nationwide background check conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.This ensures that criminal acts outside the state of Indiana do not escape the review process and makes hopping from state to prevent detection a less desirable strategy.

Senate Bill 160, as it is referred to, makes it mandatory to check for all criminal and sex offender records on a national level. The bill was sponsored by state Senators Jim Arnold, D-LaPorte, and Tom Wyss, R-Fort Wayne. According to Senator Wyss, "For a small amount of money we're doing an exceptional amount of safety checking." The small amount of money that Senator Wyss is referring to is the estimated $40 fee that must be paid by the applicant for the background check to be run by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The 9-0 vote is a strong indicator that there is no argument among those in the committee that this bill will help to make the screening process of applicants for school positions much stronger and help protect school children and other staff more than the statewide-only background checks.

Part of the process of undergoing a national criminal background check by the Federal Bureau of Investigation is to be fingerprinted. One other senator on the committee was curious as to whether all applicants would have to provide their fingerprints during the background check for employment with Indiana schools. Senator Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes, questioned Senator Tom Wyss on the matter, and in response he replied that only applicants who were finalists for positions at schools would have to provide their fingerprints.

After the results of the national background checks come back, it is then up to each school to decide who should be disqualified and who is appropriate for a school-related position. The Indiana State Teachers Association widely supports Senate Bill 160, and there is yet to be any clear and strong opposition to the legislation.

Although a national criminal background check is now required by the state, other background checks can be performed if a school deems it necessary on top of the background check performed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. backgroundchecks.com can offer such verifications. Most applicants for any job position today need to list previous employment history, educational history, and references. For advanced positions, professional certificates may need to be verified as well. A Past Employment Verification can be conducted through backgroundchecks.com to check for accuracy and honesty in stated information, such as dates of employment, job position, and the reason for leaving. A Reference Verification for both personal and professional references can be checked by backgroundchecks.com in order to confirm important and desirable qualities in a job applicant, such as integrity, dependability, and good character. The average turnaround for all verification services is about 1-3 days. Having a credible, independent company run verifications for schools and other employers can save time and provide more accurate and reliable information during the background check process.

About backgroundchecks.com -

backgroundchecks.com - a founding member of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®) and cofounder of the Expungement Clearinghouse - serves thousands of customers nationwide, from small businesses to Fortune 100 companies by providing comprehensive screening services. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with an Eastern Operations Center in Chapin, S.C., backgroundchecks.com is home to one of the largest online criminal conviction databases in the industry. For more information about backgroundchecks’ offerings, please visit www.backgroundchecks.com.

Source: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/senate-panel-endorses-national-background-checks-for-school-employees/article_51e48b74-0002-55b7-a558-147d608157bf.html

Author: Michael Klazema

It has recently come to light that there seems to be a difference of practice when it comes to day care regulations in Indiana. After the death of a two year old at a religious day care center, light has been shed on the fact that day care centers associated with faith based organizations are not held to the same standards as other, secular non-affiliated day care centers.

The child in question drowned in a baptismal pool and while it has been ruled as accidental, during an earlier inspection it was found that there were several broken high chairs, expired food being served to the children and dirty changing tables.

Indiana recognizes three types of child care centers; licensed centers, licensed homes and unlicensed registered ministries. In the state of Indiana, regular centers must adhere to 192 regulations, day care center operated out of homes have 94 regulations to abide by, but unlicensed registered ministries have only 21 regulations to follow.

Melanie Brizzi, child-care administrator for the state's Bureau of Child Care says there are now more unlicensed faith-based day-care centers in Indiana -- 730 -- than licensed centers -- 601.

Faith-based day-care centers don't need to meet a host of regulations, state officials said. One of the most critical is a requirement that children be within "sight and sound" of an adult.  But background check requirements are not standardized across these license types either, and not surprisingly faith based centers have lower standards.

Of course this could be a huge risk for children who attend these day care centers. In addition to being subject to a potentially environment that has fewer safety regulations, there is no telling is the lack of standards become a draw for people that can’t get passed background checks in other places. For the safety of children parent advocacy groups in the state of Indiana are now lobbying to have the same stringent rules applied to day care centers in churches, just as the public day care centers are, including mandating that all employees go through background checks.

Companies like backgroundchecks.com can be a real asset to these daycare centers as they have products that are specifically tailored to ensuring the safety of children. One of these products is known as the US Offender OneSEARCH. This product will search sex offender registry information in all states and report back to organizations immediately if any of their employees have been registered. Having the policies in place and taking the time to do this will certainly lower the risk that anything would happen to children in any Indiana day care center.

About backgroundchecks.com -

backgroundchecks.com - a founding member of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®) - serves thousands of customers nationwide, from small businesses to Fortune 100 companies by providing comprehensive screening services.  Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with an Eastern Operations Center in Chapin, S.C., backgroundchecks.com is home to one of the largest online criminal conviction databases in the industry. For more information about backgroundchecks’ offerings, please visit www.backgroundchecks.com.

Click here to find out more about our authors.

Source: http://www.indystar.com/article/20120224/LOCAL/202240319/Indiana-s-regulations-differ-day-cares?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|IndyStar.com

Ever since the Penn State and Syracuse scandals came to light, colleges and universities across the country have been asked if they are doing enough when it comes to background checking their staff. One of these universities, Indiana State University, is really asking themselves that question as over the past two months three ISU employees have been arrested. Though the university states that all employees went through a background check and that the arrests are not related to their policy, there appear to be several employees who have been hired that have backgrounds that are less than desirable.

The current policy at ISU states that all new employees of the university are put through background checks including student employees who have access to sensitive information. However, these background checks are only done when an employee is hired and never again. In the case of ISU, they would benefit from hiring a third part background check company like backgroundchecks.com that would be able to offer specific products to enhance the way they are checking their existing employees. Products like their Ongoing Criminal Monitoring service can be added to traditional background checks to monitor for the occurance of new criminal records. ISU would be notified of any new criminal record that appeared for an employee's name.

About backgroundchecks.com -

backgroundchecks.com - a founding member of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®) - serves thousands of customers nationwide, from small businesses to Fortune 100 companies by providing comprehensive screening services.  Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with an Eastern Operations Center in Chapin, S.C., backgroundchecks.com is home to one of the largest online criminal conviction databases in the industry. For more information about backgroundchecks’ offerings, please visit www.backgroundchecks.com.

Source: http://www.indianastatesman.com/news/background-checks-can-isu-do-more-1.2776783#.Tzj5CFFAXK4

It is now official. After debate and discussion, the city of Valparaiso, IN has decided that they need to expand the background checks they are currently doing on city park employees to make them more detailed and offer more safety to the public. Though the city has already been doing these more intense background checks on some of their city park employees, like those who have management positions, they have not been doing them on all of them. This will now change.

Some of the things that will change will include a full national background check on employees instead of a state background check. Other changes include the addition of verifying social security numbers, verifying addresses, checking the sex offender registry and in addition to the national criminal record check, they will also check county records.

This will be a big undertaking, but as the program grows, the plan is for all employees to be checked. They will start specifically with those who work directly with children and will move on to those who have jobs in departmental management. They will then do checks on all full-time employees, followed by part-time and seasonal employees. Finally, the concession employees will get their turn at going through a background check. Every employee will eventually have to go through the background check. It is expected to cost the department anywhere from $5000 to $7000, but there may be a push to have applicants and employees pay the $15 fee in the future.

Companies like backgroundchecks.com are making the process of large scale background checks easier for companies to handle. When a company or organization chooses to perform many background checks at once, these third party companies are the best choice. With many options and products that can be helpful, the ease and convenience of these companies will be evident from the first background investigation. One of these products is Ongoing Criminal Monitoring which is excellent for companies who want to keep an eye on the criminal backgrounds of their employees while they are employed. When a company chooses this product from backgroundchecks.com, they will receive notification if new records show up in the database for of their employees is arrested or convicted of a crime.

Though the city of Valparaiso is doing a great thing with these new background checks, there is no indication that they will perform these investigations more than once on each individual. Performing these checks every few years on all employees can make sure the department is as safe as possible.

About backgroundchecks.com -

backgroundchecks.com - a founding member of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®) - serves thousands of customers nationwide, from small businesses to Fortune 100 companies by providing comprehensive screening services.  Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with an Eastern Operations Center in Chapin, S.C., backgroundchecks.com is home to one of the largest online criminal conviction databases in the industry. For more information about backgroundchecks’ offerings, please visit www.backgroundchecks.com.

Source: http://posttrib.suntimes.com/news/porter/10292674-418/valpo-parks-expands-background-check-process.html

Both Georgia and Indiana have enacted laws requiring some or all employers in their states to being using E-Verify to check the work eligibility status of new employees.

In Indiana, starting July 1, 2011, all state agencies and political subdivisions will be required to use the federal E-Verify program to check the work eligibility status of all new employees.

In Georgia, all employers with more than 10 employees must begin using E-Verify to check the work eligibility status of new employees.  All employers with 500 or more employees must begin by January 1, 2012; 100-499 employees by July 1, 2012 and 10-99 by July 1, 2013.

Please note that state agencies, contractors and subcontractors in the state of Georgia have been required to utilize E-Verify for some time.  This law updates this requirement to include all employers with more than 10 employees.

If you would like more information about how this update may affect your employment screening program and how backgroundchecks.com can help, please contact us.

E-Verify Anti-Fraud Enhancements Announced
The DHS and USCIS have announced the expansion of E-Verify program's capabilities to include U.S. passport photo matching-further enhancing the integrity of the program by enabling E-Verify to automatically check the validity and authenticity of all U.S. passports and passport cards presented for employment verification checks.

ICE to Continue to Focus on Prosecuting Employers that Violate Immigration Law
ICE is focused on investigating and prosecuting employers who exploit or abuse their employees and have a history of knowingly and repeatedly hiring illegal workers. In FY 2010, ICE initiated a record 2,746 worksite enforcement investigations, criminally arrested 196 employers for worksite-related violations, and issued a record 2,196 notices of inspection to employers. In addition, worksite investigations resulted in nearly $37 million in judicial fines, forfeitures, and restitutions. ICE also debarred 97 business and 49 individuals from doing business with the government, thereby bringing a new level of integrity to the contracting process, according to an ICE representative. To add to this, 1,000 more employers recently received Notices of Intent from ICE, marking the start of an I-9 audit.

Recent Report finds significant improvements to the E-Verify Program
A recent report about E-Verify issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) cites improvements in the reduction of mismatch rates, ensuring employer compliance, and establishing better safeguards for employees’ personal information. GAO reviewed USCIS’s E-Verify program by analyzing E-Verify query data from 2009 to 2010. GAO reported a significant reduction in the number of Tentative Non-Confirmations (TNCs), citing a 5.4 percent decrease in TNCs since FY2007. In addition, the report noted how E-Verify has added safeguards to minimize and secure the handling of new employees’ personal information by creating a privacy branch; safeguards that limit both the data collected for E-Verify and the people who can access the data. To read GAO’s report, as well as USCIS’s response to the GAO report, please visit http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11146.pdf.

USCIS Updates I-9 Handbook
The USCIS has released an updated version of its I-9 handbook which clarifies and reinforces many critical points including when an I-9 can be started, how long an employer has before the I-9 must be completed, how long to keep the I-9, and more. Please see http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/m-274.pdf for the updated handbook.

Florida Legislation Pending to Bar Illegal Immigrant Employment
The proposed bill would require Florida employers to use the federal E-Verify employee screening system. The measure contains a safe-harbor provision that provides a rebuttable presumption that employers using E-Verify did not knowingly employ an unauthorized alien.

Certain Floridian State Agencies Must Use E-Verify
Governor Rick Scott has signed an Executive Order, effective immediately, directing all state agencies under the direction of the Governor to verify the employment eligibility of all current and prospective agency employees through the United States Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify System. These agencies are to include, as a condition of all state contracts, an express requirement that contractors utilize the E-Verify system to confirm the employment eligibility of: (a) all persons employed during the contract and (b) all persons, including subcontractors, assigned to the contractor to perform work under the contract with the state agency. Also, agencies not under the direction of the Governor are encouraged to verify the employment eligibility of their current and prospective employees utilizing the E-Verify system.

Certain Indiana State Agencies Must Use E-Verify
Indiana has passed SB 590 requiring state agencies, political subdivisions, contractors with public contracts for services with a state or political subdivision, and certain business entities to use E-Verify. The bill also includes Arizona-like immigration including requiring law enforcement officers to verify the citizenship or immigration status of individuals in certain situations. The bill goes into effect on July 1, 2011.

Mississippi Legislation Pending to Stop Illegal Immigrant Employment
Mississippi has passed Senate Bill 2179 which would amend E-verify requirements to require employers to keep a record of the verification for the duration of the employee’s employment or at least three years, whichever is longer. The measure would also extend the authority to impose sanctions or seek penalties authorized under the law to the Department of Revenue, Board of Public Contractors, and any other state agency, department or government entity, in addition to the Department of Employment Security, Secretary of State, Department of Human Services, and the Attorney General.

The bill would also make it a misdemeanor for a person who is unlawfully present in the United States and who is an unauthorized alien to knowingly apply for work or solicit work in a public place in the state. The bill now goes before the House, which failed to pass similar immigration measures last year.

Certain Rhode Island State Agencies No Longer Required to Use E-Verify
Governor Chafee has signed an Executive Order, effective immediately, that rescinds the Illegal Immigration Control Order that required certain state agencies and vendors to use E-Verify.