I understand, support, and agree with the need in our industry to gather out of state background checks on employees who will be left alone supervising children. However, the current process for gathering the information from each individual state is not only confusing but also ever changing. The resources put out by VDSS outdate quickly and have providers searching all over to get the right form, processed the right way, and hopefully to the right place. Not to mention very costly for places like Northern VA where we have such a high volume of people that come from all over the country. 

While VA has been amazing in getting background checks returned for in-state, some states are backlogged so far that we are waiting 60-90 days to get a response. With an already EXTREAMLY limited staffing pool, it is putting centers in a position to choose whether to take a risk on a violation for being out of ratio or having someone in a classroom that doesn't have a complete file. 

I believe the state should consider allowing us to bring potential employees on in a type of probationary period where they can begin training in the classrooms prior to the checks coming in. There would need to be stipulations such as not being able to be left in a room unsupervised or alone with children and maybe other things of that nature. We are forking out hundreds of dollars sometimes on team members that we haven't even been able to see interact with children in a classroom. There needs to be a modification to this requirement that both protects students but also gives a grace period to centers.