EXCERPT FROM: Concord Monitor
By Shira Schoenberg
Child-care workers will soon need to be fingerprinted for criminal background checks under a new state law that takes effect Jan. 4.
Few child-care providers disagree with the goal of the law: making children safer. But many have raised concerns about the cost and inconvenience of getting the fingerprints taken.
"It's an unfunded requirement that creates hardship in the field because we're running on a very tight budget," said Susan Hagner, executive director of Emerson School for Preschoolers in Concord.
State legislators passed a law in 2006 requiring that all child-care personnel in state-licensed programs be fingerprinted. The fingerprints will be run through both state and national criminal databases by the state police and the FBI.
Denise Corvino, chief of child-care licensing for the state, said implementation of the law was delayed until 2010 after the state learned that fingerprints would have to be digitized in order to go through the FBI database.
"We realized the startup costs alone were exorbitant, and the Department of Health and Human Services wasn't in a position to expend the cost for machinery," Corvino said.
Recently, HHS formed a partnership with the Department of Safety, which will now do the fingerprinting. The Safety Department already processes fingerprints for criminals and anyone else undergoing a criminal background check.
Department of Safety spokesman Jim Van Dongen said the fee charged to child-care providers will cover the cost of the background check.
The law applies to all paid or volunteer child-care workers who have regular contact with children, and all adult household members of a home in which a child-care facility is located.
According to the law, any child-care center employee hired after Jan. 4 will need to be fingerprinted.
Child-care facilities will not need to have all of their employees fingerprinted immediately but will have to do so before their license is up for renewal - which could be up to three years from now.
The state has 1,140 licensed child-care programs, Corvino said. The state already performs criminal background checks on child-care employees, but the fingerprinting will allow it to access the FBI's national database.
The police do not hold onto the fingerprints but will send them to the state's child-care licensing unit to review.
New Hampshire workers who already have to be fingerprinted include nurses, school employees, drug and alcohol counselors, and some municipal employees.
According to the law, a child-care facility can have its license revoked if an employee has been convicted of a violent or sexually related crime against a child, or of "a crime which shows that the person might be reasonably expected to pose a threat to a child," such as a violent or sexual crime against an adult. The background search will also look for other felony arrests that could endanger a child, as well as proven complaints of child abuse or neglect.
The most frustrating part of the law for providers has been figuring out where to get fingerprints taken and how to deal with the cost.
There are six official Department of Safety fingerprint stations - in Concord, Manchester, Dover, Keene, Tamworth and Twin Mountain.
Those locations have digital fingerprinting technology and charge $34.25 for each individual being fingerprinted. People can also get their fingerprints taken at any other state-authorized site, such as a local police station.
But many of those places use ink fingerprinting, which costs $45.25, and police stations can add on additional service charges.
"The cost remains a very worrisome issue for programs and providers," said Jackie Cowell, executive director of Early Learning NH, a nonprofit association of child-care centers.
Lori Harris, president of the New Hampshire Association for the Education of Young Children, said most child-care providers she has talked to say they like the idea of fingerprinting but are struggling with the practical implications.
"People want to have every effort done to ensure someone who (has) a criminal record isn't working for a program," Harris said. "What people are trying to figure out is how do we make it happen. There's an expense involved. There are several locations around the state not necessarily convenient to everyone."
Harris, who is also director of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center Child Care Center in Lebanon, said the closest official fingerprinting centers to her center are in Concord or Keene - an hour's drive away. She could send her 30 employees to the local police station, but that will increase the cost.
"Other concerns are, if people are driving somewhere else, do you release them from work? Then you need subs," Harris said. "Who's liable when they're driving?"
Harris said she has heard from centers struggling to determine how to pay for the fingerprinting. "How do you expense that out?" Harris said. "Do you pass it on to the employee or take that on at the center?"
Chris Casserly, executive director of Rochester Child Care Center, said the center expects to increase its fundraising to make up for the more than $1,750 in fingerprinting costs.
The center has 50 employees and an additional dozen volunteers. Casserly said the center already lost money from two state-run childhood development programs that had their funding cut this year.
"We think (fingerprinting) is a good idea, we're just concerned about the cost of it," Casserly said.
Cowell said that in general child-care providers are struggling in the recession, as parents have less money to pay tuition. A state waiting list for child-care subsidies already has 500 names on it.
"Programs are under a lot of stress to try to meet the changing needs of families in this economy, and they just don't have the money," Cowell said.