Transforming Child Care Licensing in Illinois: Background Check Reform

During the first phase of IDEC’s child care licensing transformation plan, the Department spent months obtaining input from providers and families to better understand the major concerns within our licensing system. IDEC grouped the results from stakeholder engagement into 4 focus areas: background checks, exemptions, external communication and training and support for day care licensing representatives. Now that stakeholder engagement has wrapped up, IDEC is shifting its attention to concerns raised regarding the background check process and exemptions during phase 2 of the transformation work. Below we will explore these proposed changes.

Background Checks

• Linking background checks to individuals: Currently, background check results are tied to employers rather than the individual. This structure requires individuals to have a conditional offer of employment at a program site before they may begin the background check process. Furthermore, our current process also does not allow prospective staff to apply for employment at multiple sites before deciding which program would be the best fit for them. IDEC is proposing linking background check results to the individual applicant, which should provide prospective staff additional employment flexibility and allow them to begin the background check process earlier in their job search.
• IDEC to issue background check employment decisions: In our current system, a series of criminal offenses bar prospective employees from working with young children. However, aside from those offenses, directors have leeway to interpret any other offenses that appear on an applicant’s background check results and decide whether to offer employment to the applicant. Under the proposed system, IDEC will make a final determination on all offenses and ultimately issue clearances to work at a site to ensure consistency across the state.

Start Early applauds IDEC for taking these long-awaited steps to improve the functionality of our background check process. Yet, it remains unclear what steps the department will take to reduce the weeks-long delay in the processing of background checks. We ask the department to take a deeper look at ways to expedite and streamline background check processing and tracking, like creating an online portal, so prospective employees and directors are not left to wait several weeks for updates or results.

Exemptions

Providers have raised concerns that our current exemption process is vague and the administrative rule is convoluted. IDEC is proposing a different framework to think of licensing requirements on a spectrum, based on the level of agency oversight required by the program and whether Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) payments are accepted.

This initial proposal by the department would be a welcome change, considering that our current exemption structure is opaque and difficult to navigate. Creating various levels of exemptions seems like a positive change in bringing additional clarity to our licensing structure. Nonetheless, we do encourage IDEC to release additional details on this exemption structure and publish resource guides for each category, so programs can have a clear understanding of the requirements they must meet. This will be especially helpful for family, friend and neighbor providers who are likely not familiar with our child care licensing system.

As IDEC prepares to implement these proposed changes later this year, Start Early believes that these initiatives will improve licensing functions. However, we cannot lose sight of what we envision in the long-term to improve our child care licensing system. We encourage IDEC to consider what additional support and resources they can offer to reduce administrative burden, enhance program quality, and increase the number of slots across the state, especially infant-toddler slots. We look forward to the department unveiling further details on licensing redesign over the next 5 months.

In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about IDEC’s proposals as the new agency readies to launch or offer the department any feedback, click here for information on listening sessions, meetings, and workgroups.