Child Care Interstate Background Check (CC-IBaCs) Environmental Scan

Appendix D: Interview Guide for CAN Registry Custodians

U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (DHHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE)

Child Care Interstate Background Checks (CC-IBaCs) Environmental Scan

Interview Guide for Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN) Registry Custodians

Thank you for agreeing to participate in this interview today. My name is __________. I work for CNA, a research organization based in Arlington, VA. We are working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Child Care and Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation to find ways to improve the implementation of the interstate background checks on child care workers that are required under the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014. For this study, we are interviewing a wide range of key people involved in the background check process. ACF will use the data collected through the interviews to support the development of promising solutions to strengthen nationwide implementation of child care background checks as mandated by the CCDBG Act and provide states and territories with additional technical assistance to facilitate implementation. Please note that the sole purpose of this study is to gather data to inform how ACF can better support state and territory agencies.

Before we get started, there are a few things I should mention. This is a research project, and your participation is voluntary. We expect that the interview will take about an hour. We will summarize information at the state or territory level and use it to produce a final report that will be used for internal planning at the Office of Child Care, but we will not identify or quote any of the specific people interviewed for the report. We aim to summarize findings so that comments cannot be attributed to any specific person.

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number for this information collection is 0970-0356 and the expiration date is 06/30/2021.

Do you have any questions before we start?

With your permission, we would like to record the interview. The recording will be used to help us ensure our notetaking is accurate. The recordings will be accessible only to the project team. We will destroy the recordings after the study is complete. Are you okay with us recording?

1. What is your role with the child abuse and neglect registry in [State]?

2. Have you or your agency had any contact with your state’s child care agency about the requirement to screen child care workers against the state child abuse and neglect registry? [Interviewer: Ask the respondent to describe their contact(s) with the child care agency.] Are contacts with the child care agency ongoing?

As states conduct background checks on child care workers, you’re getting requests from both your state’s child care background check program and from programs in other states as well. Can you tell when requests come from out-of-state requestors? Can you tell when checks are requested for child care employment purposes? [If yes] Can you give me an estimate of the number of child care background check requests you receive that are in-state vs. out-of-state requests?

________ # in-state ______ # out-of-state

It’s the requests from other states – the out-of-state requests – that I’d specifically like to ask you about.

THE PROCESS FOR RECEIVING AND RESPONDING TO OUT-OF-STATE REQUESTS

3. How do you receive requests from out-of-state requestors who are making CAN registry check requests for child care employment purposes?

PROBES: Do you accept requests using an online request form?

… by phone or fax?

… email or regular mail?

If an out-of-state requestor has more than one individual he or she needs screened against your child abuse and neglect registry, can he/she request multiple searches in one request or must each request be made individually?

Are requests from out-of-state entities transmitted to you from another agency within your state? [If yes] Which agency?

Can you tell when requests come from out-of-state?

4. Do you provide instructions on your website for how to make a registry request?

PROBES: Do you provide a form for requestors to fill out?

Do you provide a phone number and contact person if requestors have questions?

5. What types of information about perpetrators are included in your child abuse and neglect registry?

PROBES: Does your registry contain both substantiated findings and pending allegations? Dismissed cases? Criminal cases? Other?

6. Is the registry search a name-based or demographic-based search?

PROBES: [If yes] What name information is required for you to complete the search for a perpetrator? …Last name only, first and last, partial match on name?

Does your search process use other demographic information (for example, date of birth) or other identifying number (for example, SSN or driver’s license number)?

What do you do when multiple possible matches are returned?

[If no] Can your registry be searched using fingerprints?

7. What information about perpetrators does your state provide to out-of-state child care agency requestors? In particular, what information does your state provide to child care agencies conducting background checks for employment purposes?

PROBE: Do you provide…

• The full record?

• A partial record?

• A red light/green light indicator?

• No information?

If you can only provide a partial record, what information is in the partial record?

If you can only provide a red light/green light indicator, what exactly does the red light indicator mean? ... the green light indicator? What factors do you use to assign a red or green light?

8. In deciding whether to release information to an out-of-state requestor for employment purposes, do you consider what process was received by the perpetrator (that is, must the record be a substantiated finding? …must it be an adjudicated case?) Are there other things you consider when deciding to release information?

PROBE: At what point will you share registry information?

Must perpetrators have exhausted their agency appeal rights?

9. How many years of history are there in your registry (that is, when did the registry begin operations)? [If the registry is less than 10 years old (i.e., established in 2009 or after)], what is the procedure for searching older records?

PROBES: For how long are records held in your registry?

Are records given an “expiration date?

10. How are results conveyed to the requestor?

PROBES: Are results provided to the requestor …

• Electronically, via the registry website

• Email

• Mail

• Telephone

• Fax

• Other

[When the requestor is an individual] Do you send results to a 3^rd party when requested?

ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES

11. What fee do you charge to out-of-state requestors who are requesting a check for child care employment purposes, and how is payment collected?

12. How long does it take you to respond to an out-of-state request made for child care employment purposes on average?

PROBES: Do you have an existing backlog of requests?

If so, approximately how many requests are on the backlog?

CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

13) What challenges have you encountered in responding to out-of-state requests for child abuse and neglect registry searches? [Interviewer: Consider the answers to questions above when probing for challenges. For each challenge identified, ask the respondent to describe the issue and how it affects out-of-state registry checks.]

PROBES: Are there challenges related to …

• Staffing?

• Communicating with out-of-state requestors?

• Lack of automation?

• Payment of fees?

• Difficulty with linking automated systems?

• Restrictions on the release of information?

• Legislative authority to respond [with full information] to out-of-state requests?

• Difficulty obtaining records to verify due process

• Data completeness and quality

[If staffing is a challenge ask] How large is your staff shortage (in terms of number of staff)?

14) How do you think the process can be made easier for you and for requesting states?

PROBES: Which of the barriers that you’ve identified do you see as the barrier most in need of an immediate solution?

What kind of support or resources from the federal government would assist you in overcoming the implementation challenges you’ve mentioned?

15) Are there any other people in your state from other programs or interested agencies that you think we should interview for this study?

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