从 7 月开始，任何从联邦政府获得财政支持的印第安纳州托儿机构都必须对所有新员工和志愿者进行全国背景调查。设施将有额外的一年时间来完成对其现有员工和志愿者的背景调查。

许多托儿服务提供者欢迎这一新要求。例如，Growing Kids Learning Centers 总裁迈克·加拉托尼 (Mike Garatoni) 表示，旧的背景调查标准不够充分，不足以保护孩子。

在该法律通过之前，托儿机构只需要进行州背景调查。这让雇主很容易受到伤害，因为他们可以很容易地在不知不觉中雇用在邻国犯罪的个人。很明显，需要一个更强大的背景调查工具。一种可能性可能是要求对更大区域进行背景调查。这可以通过第三方背调公司来完成，它允许雇主选择多达五个州进行背景调查。

但是，为了在托儿机构中为儿童提供尽可能好的保护，需要进行更全面的背景调查。US OneSEARCH 是一个很好的例子，它是一个多辖区、以国家为重点的背景调查工具，它使雇主能够搜索从州和地方数据库中挑选出的超过 4.5 亿条记录。US OneSEARCH 还包括对罪犯登记处的搜索，这对于与未成年人合作的企业尤其重要。

印第安纳州的新法律将要求进行基于全国指纹的背景调查，从而有效地堵住他们的旧漏洞，该漏洞可能允许雇用具有州外犯罪记录的个人。这项新法律反映了最近对印第安纳州学校员工背景调查政策的收紧，因此现在所有年龄段的孩子都将受到印第安纳州掠夺者的保护。

新法律还包含旨在保护儿童的其他条款。例如，工人现在必须年满 14 岁，主管必须年满 18 岁。这应该有助于确保有负责人随时待命，以处理设施可能出现的任何安全问题。

安全和卫生标准也已更新。例如，托儿服务提供者现在必须做得更好，将药品存放在儿童无法获得的地方。

这项新法律的另一个重要方面是它适用于所有接受联邦资金的托儿服务提供者，包括教会组织。过去，宗教机构的日托计划并未受到与营利性托儿机构同等级别的监管。这导致了安全和卫生问题，更不用说罪犯或其他与孩子一起工作的犯罪分子的潜在问题了。通过要求对所有类型的托儿服务提供者进行国家背景调查，这项新法律确实在使印第安纳州托儿所的所有孩子更安全方面取得了长足的进步。

当然，为了从这项新法律提供的保护中受益，父母必须确保他们始终与获得许可且信誉良好的托儿机构打交道。

Starting in July, any Indiana child care facility that receives financial support from the federal government will be required to run a national background check on all new staff and volunteers. Facilities will have an additional year to complete background checks on their existing staff and volunteers.

Many child care providers welcome this new requirement. For example, Mike Garatoni, president of Growing Kids Learning Centers, said that the old background check standards were insufficient and did not do enough to protect kids.

Prior to the passing of this law, child care facilities were only required to run state background checks. This left employers vulnerable, because they could easily and unknowingly hire an individual who had committed crimes in neighboring states. It was clear that a more robust background check tool was needed. One possibility might have been to require a background check across a larger region. This could have been accomplished by using Multi-State OneSEARCH from backgroundchecks.com, which allows employers to select up to five states to include in the background check.

However, to get the best possible protection for kids at child care facilities, an even more comprehensive background check would be needed. US OneSEARCH is a great example of a multi-jurisdictional nationally focused background check tool that enables employers to search over 450 million records culled from state and local databases. US OneSEARCH also includes a search of Offender Registries, which is especially important for businesses working with minors.

Indiana’s new law will require a national finger-print based background check, effectively closing their old loophole which potentially allowed individuals with out-of-state criminal records to be hired. This new law mirrors a recent tightening up of background check policies for Indiana school employees, so that now kids of all ages will be protected from predators in Indiana.

The new law also contains other provisions designed to protect kids. For example, workers must now be 14 or over, and supervisors must be 18 or over. This should help make sure a responsible individual is always on hand to deal with any safety issues that may arise at the facility.

Safety and sanitation standards have also been updated. For example, child care providers now have to do a better job keeping medicines where kids can’t access them.

Another significant aspect of this new law is that it applies to all child care providers receiving federal money, including church-based organizations. In the past, day care programs at religious institutions have not been subject to the same level of regulation as for-profit childcare organizations. This resulted in problems with safety and sanitation, not to mention potential issues with offenders or other criminals working with kids. By requiring national background checks for all types of child care providers, this new law really does make some great strides towards keeping all kids in Indiana child care facilities safer.

Of course, in order to benefit from the protections offered by this new law, parents must make sure that they are always dealing with licensed and reputable child care facilities.