UNITED STATES
Charlotte Parent
BY SETH LANGSON
Published: May 31, 2016
Hardly a day goes by without there being another news story about a child who was sexually abused by a teacher, coach, clergy or another person in a position of trust. These incidents reinforce the need for parents to be proactive by asking questions before entrusting their child to others.
Background Checks
Thorough background checks are essential for anyone that might work with your child. Most organizations perform criminal background checks. However, if a person was not convicted of sexual misconduct, the person could still have abused children and have not been caught. Frequent changes in employment and/or residence can be indicators of a person who has had prior accusations of behaving inappropriately with children. Since criminal background checks are so limited, they should be just a starting point.
An organization should require potential employees to give written permission so that the hiring organization can freely communicate with the person’s former employer. This is important because without it, the reference will only provide confirmation of employment but will not disclose job performance.
Questions you should ask:
What was the scope of the background checks for employees?
Did the organization talk with anyone other than the references supplied by the employees?
Did the organization speak to the direct supervisor at former places of employment to find out about his/her job performance?
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.