Federal law went into effect October 1 to require childcare programs to receive fingerprint results for new employees prior to those employees working with children.
Childcare centers nationwide had three years to get systems in place to be able to comply with the law. Previously, fingerprint results could be in process while employees worked with children under supervision as long as federal and state background checks were completed. That is no longer allowed. North Dakota childcare providers are pleased with the new federal regulations - but say the state process for reviewing fingerprints has not improved. Right now, it can take up to three weeks to set up a fingerprint appointment and up to three months for those prints to be fully processed and approved. Robin Nelson is CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of the Red River Valley. She says this process causes issues for employees and families.
"It's pretty difficult for us because a lot of our employees are part time college students," Nelson said. "We employ about 130 at any given time, and they aren't going to wait a month before they can start earning a paycheck. So when we have fewer staff, we can serve fewer kids. For every staff we turn away, 14 children and families are impacted."
Nelson says she's been "rattling the cage" at North Dakota Health and Human Services for the past year. She says she feels the lack of continuity of leadership at the department may have played a role in this current situation, but also says she does not blame current leadership. Nelson says childcare providers are asking the public to contact their lawmakers to ask for the process of background checks and fingerprint processing to be adequately funded and have the appropriate infrastructure to be completed in a timely manner.