Audit: Vetting process poor for child care employees

The Maryland State Department of Education failed to ensure that employees of child care facilities had undergone background checks required by state law, a legislative audit has found.

The department, which licenses and inspects 9,800 child care facilities serving more than 200,000 children statewide, was audited for the threeyear period from 2011 to 2014. The Maryland Department of Legislative Services released the audit this week.

Auditors also noted that when the department was alerted to criminal behavior of child care employees, it didn’t have a systematic way to make sure those employees were not still working at the facility.

“I think the point we are trying to make is the fact that their process wasn’t developed in a way that accounted for background checks,” said Thomas Barnickel, legislative auditor.

The department maintains a database of all child care facility employees and should have reviewed it periodically to see if each worker has had a criminal background check, he said.

Auditors randomly checked the files, looking at the records of nine employees and finding two who did not have background checks. The problem had been identified in a 2013 audit.

Auditors also reviewed 25 alerts sent to five regional child care offices and found that actions were not taken or properly documented in six cases.

In a written response to the audit, the state department of education disagreed with some of the auditors’ conclusions. Specifically, education officials said new procedures were put in place in September 2015, requiring inspectors who visit child care facilities to verify the names of employees who work there.

And, officials said, some of the background checks had been done, but the paperwork was not filed for workers the auditors identified as lacking them.

The department did agree to do a better job of ensuring background checks are completed.