EXCERPT FROM: Journal Sentinel
By John Diedrich
Child-care providers across the nation would be subjected to comprehensive background examinations, including an FBI fingerprint check, under federal legislation pending in the U.S. House and expected in the Senate next week.
Ten states already require fingerprint checks of child-care providers, but Wisconsin is not one of them - despite recently passing a new law stepping up background checks.
Last month, Gov. Jim Doyle signed into law a measure that requires checks be done every three months and made other reforms to the state's troubled taxpayer-supported child-care program. A proposal to include fingerprint checks was defeated.
In June, the Journal Sentinel found that nearly 500 child-care providers had criminal records. In an ongoing investigation, the newspaper also has exposed widespread fraud in the $350 million-a-year Wisconsin Shares program.
Wisconsin's new law doesn't go far enough, according to a group advocating for background checks.
Providers with criminal history have an incentive to give false information, but taking fingerprints makes that impossible, said Linda Smith, executive director of the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies.
"There are a lot of ways to game the system and get around a name check, but there is not a way to get around a fingerprint check," said Smith, whose group advocates for agencies that refer parents to day care centers nationally.
The federal government already requires fingerprint checks for day care centers on military installations and in Head Start programs, but this is the first time a more far-reaching proposal has been made, Smith said.
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, a Milwaukee Democrat, introduced legislation that would require providers to undergo background checks, including fingerprints, in July - a month after the Journal Sentinel reported hundreds of criminals were receiving funds from taxpayers. It would bar people from being providers if they had been convicted of certain crimes such as child abuse and other violent offenses.
Moore's bill calls for background checks once every five years, gives providers 30 days to appeal a denial and cuts federal child-care funds by 2% to states that don't comply. It says states can pass on $36 of the cost of checks to providers.
Moore was not available for comment Friday but issued a statement saying, "My bill makes sure that we're not leaving kids to chance when they're dropped off at a local day care."
A day after Moore called for background checks, a second House bill was introduced by Rep. André Carson, but it did not call for fingerprints. The Indiana Democrat's bill would take away 10% of funds for states that don't comply.
A Senate bill is expected next week with a fingerprint check and a funding cut for noncompliance, Smith said.
Fingerprint push fails
State Rep. Robin Vos (R-Racine) unsuccessfully proposed fingerprint checks for providers during the debate this fall on background checks here. He plans to bring back the proposal early next year.
He said fingerprint checks would stop providers from beating background checks by giving false information or moving into Wisconsin with a conviction from another state.
"Just because you say your name is John Smith, if you don't provide fingerprints, there is no way to prove it," Vos said.
State Sen. Robert Jauch (D-Poplar) said he voted against fingerprint checks for Wisconsin providers because it would be too costly and cumbersome and he thinks the new system will catch everyone.
Jauch, chairman of the Committee on Children and Families, said Wisconsin's quarterly background checks are far better than checks once every five years, as Moore proposes. He said he wants to see how the newly passed state law works but is open to other ideas.
"It is possible we would consider a fingerprint check, but I don't see it as a basic necessity," he said. "I am not sure there is a failsafe method on any of this."