Why do a nanny criminal background check?
Before hiring a nanny or au pair most families carefully search through dozens or more nanny profiles, carefully interview several candidates and then call her references. It can be an agonizing decision, bringing someone you barely know into your home and this final step, the background check shouldn’t be skipped. The peace of mind it will bring you is more than worth the cost.

I’m running a check on my nanny, but what do I check?
It's hard to imagine that in this era of the Internet and computerization there is no reliable national criminal database that is accessible by the public. The "gold standard" for checking a nanny's criminal background is to first run a search using her Social Security Number to see where she has lived and then use a large database to check state records throughout the country using her given name and any aliases she may have used. The eNannySource background check provider has over 245,000,000 records in their database from every state in the country.

This search will show aliases, what states and counties she’s lived in (based on credit reporting agencies) and any criminal convictions that are in the database. Unfortunately, many states and counties around the country don’t have accurate or full reporting (especially on misdemeanors, which are the crimes typically committed by nannies) on a timely basis, so you shouldn’t rely solely on this database search. A county court record search needs to be checked locally, ideally in all the counties where the nanny/au pair has lived in for at least the past seven years. From our experience nannies tend to move around as a result of college and other reasons. The Social Security trace may show addresses that your prospective nanny didn’t tell you about, that you may want to look into.

What other types of checks can be performed on nannies?
Driving records are very important if your nanny is driving on your job. There is a Sexual Offenders list that can be checked as well (our basic checks includes these offenders). Degree verification may be a good idea, since so many people misstate their education. We think checking a nanny’s references professionally can be a good timesaver for busy families.

What are the legal requirements for criminal background checking?
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (which applies to more than just credit checks) requires that when employment is involved a written release from your nanny is required to perform the check. eNannySource has a state-of-the-art electronic signature system that spares nannies from revealing their confidential information prior to hiring and saves the family lots of time faxing and getting the nanny’s signature. Link to FTC users of background checks

What are the limitations of the nanny background checks?
All companies doing these checks advise that these reports cannot guarantee complete accuracy. Also, there is a charge for each type of check that you order, so figuring out your budget ahead of time can help you prioritize which type of checks to run. Running many county searches can get costly, which is why our Nanny Assured Silver and our Nanny Assured Ultimate are wise buys.

For more information on nanny background checks including for part time nannies and summer nannies click on these links.

Nanny Background checks, nanny article

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