Recent headlines suggest that private and public schools should re-visit their employment screening practices. In New Hampshire a substitute teacher with a previous felony conviction was recently charged with felony sexual assault highlighting clear problems with the State’s background screening policy. Incidents like this could have been avoided if a thorough criminal background check had been conducted originally finding the previous felony conviction and subsequent denial of employment. Schools more than most must have a solid in-depth employment background screening policy in place to protect the at-risk population of children. Conducting a thorough background check on all aspects of an individual’s past is critical to protecting students. It is also important to perform the broadest background check enquiry possible on all individuals that come in contact with students such as teachers, bus drivers, janitors, volunteers, contractors and aides. To read more about this issue view recent CriminalBackgroundRecords.com press release: http://www.criminalbackgroundrecords.com/news/2014-5-22-Schools-Remain-Critical-Environments-for-Thorough-and-Complete-Background-Screening.html

In recent news driving services such as Uber were found by the Chicago Tribune to not have performed criminal background checks on some of their drivers. Instead they were allowing their drivers to ferry around passengers for months without knowing whether or not they had felony convictions. A KCRA.com investigation found that California was giving out letters clearing people to work for daycare or assisted living before they investigated their criminal records sometimes for serious crimes. This is of course an issue that needs to be resolved by the California State Legislature. From the CBS Local they found that a Dallas car service company ran into some issues with their pre-employment background checks when they found out that the multi-state database they were using was missing conviction records. The scope and depth of criminal background checks vary greatly from one provider to another. It is important for any organization or company to partner with a professional third party background screening company for thorough criminal background checks that encompass a certain geographical/political area and include criminal records such as felony convictions. To read more about this issue view recent CriminalBackgroundRecords.com press release: http://www.criminalbackgroundrecords.com/news/2014-4-23-Background-Checks-In-the-News.html

Currently in the USA running post-hire background checks is certainly not the norm. However, some companies and organizations have an employment screening policy that requires ongoing criminal background checks. This is definitely the case with jobs that deal with at-risk populations like children and the elderly. Most companies perform a criminal background check in the employment screening process, but once the candidate is hired no future background checks are required. This is the case because most companies think that if an employee gets in trouble with the law they would find out as the person may have to go to jail or be denied civil liberties like having a driver’s license. However, having an ongoing employment screening policy that allows for periodic criminal background checks could catch problematic situations before they materialize in the workplace. The debate is national and right now there are good reasons for have an ongoing employment screening policy but also good reasons why for some employers it is an unnecessary cost and function. One thing is certain, if an employee deals with at-risk populations it definitely makes sense to perform routine ongoing background checks to help protect those that cannot protect themselves. To read more about this issue view recent CriminalBackgroundRecords.com press release: http://www.criminalbackgroundrecords.com/news/2014-2-13-Post-Hire-Background-Checks.html

Renting to family members may not be a good idea as an elderly couple found out when they had to force an eviction.  The eviction process is never fun especially when it is your own family members you have to kick out.  For any landlord or property manager the eviction process is usually expensive and puts a drain on a property in regards to financial loss, property damage and reputation damage.  It is important that both landlord and renter understand local, state and federal laws concerning the eviction process prior to signing a lease.  No matter the circumstance the eviction process is never easy for the landlord or tenant.  This is why it is especially important for a landlord or property manager to use a professional third party tenant screening company to run tenant checks prior to leasing.  Thorough and accurate tenant checks can significantly reduce evictions for a given property.  To learn more about the challenges surrounding evictions read recent TenantScreeningUSA.com press release:  http://tenantscreeningusa.com/uncategorized/evictions-are-not-fun-tenantscreeningusa-com-highly-recommends-landlords-and-tenants-understand-the-potential-for-eviction-from-a-variety-of-reasons/

A critical component to any tenant screening process should be a 50-state national sex offender registry check. Although twenty-two US States currently have some form of residency law that restricts where sex offenders can live many States and cities do not. Many States do not allow sex offenders to live anywhere near children including schools, bus stops and daycare centers. Although sex offenders need someplace to live it is imperative that any landlord or property manager include a national sex offender search in their applicant screening process. A registered sex offender living in a vulnerable environment can lead to unnecessary injury to children. Rental properties are where most sex offenders end up living because of affordability and State law. Some sex offenders use their relative’s information instead of their own in the hopes of avoiding being recognized. This is another reason why it is so important for landlords to include a national sex offender search in their tenant screening process as it will weed out and expose these sex offenders and enable their rental dwellings to be family friendly and safe for children. To learn more about the use of sex offender records in the applicant screening process read recent TenantScreeningUSA.com press release: http://tenantscreeningusa.com/tenant-screening-news/sex-offender-registry-checks-key-component-of-tenant-screening-in-a-changing-suburban-landscape/

Keeping kids safe is a priority for parents and the community at large. With large numbers of children going to summer camps it is becoming more common for camp staff including counselor’s, leaders and volunteers to be background checked before being allowed care and supervision over the camp children. Some consider camp an extension of school and thus the same safety concerns must be addressed. As camp staff often come from out of state a national criminal check and national sex offender check should be conducted prior to hiring. While other aspects are important as well such as are the staff trained in CPR and are the facilities clean and safe, knowing the staff has been properly vetted adds another layer of safety to an at risk population. To learn more about background screening of summer camp staff read recent CriminalBackgroundRecords.com press release: http://www.criminalbackgroundrecords.com/news/2013-6-21-Summer-Camps-and-Background-Checks.html

Data mining occurs every day over the Internet with companies, organizations and government entities sorting through and analyzing large chunks of data to discover patterns and/or relationships. It is critical that everyone be cautious and careful about what kind of information they make available through the Internet and to which companies they trust with their personally identifiable information. Tenant background screening is no different, landlords and property managers should partner with a third party tenant screening company that protects and safeguards all sensitive information through its secure portals and systems including the protection of the renters information as well through the tenant selection process. To learn more about data mining and tenant background screening read recent TenantScreeningUSA.com press release: http://tenantscreeningusa.com/tenant-screening-news/data-mining-and-tenant-background-screening-is-on-line-too-easy/

The trend in America is certainly pointing to “Yes” as parents that leave their children with youth sport coaches and assistants for hours with no parental supervision would like to feel their children are in good hands. As recent news across the country suggests, the demand for background checks on coaches and assistants in youth sports leagues is growing. Typically these non-for profit organizations do not have much money, but proper background screening these days is extremely affordable and a great tool in risk mitigation. In California they are already pushing for a new bill that requires all youth sports coaches to be background checked. To learn more about background screening of youth sports league coaches read recent CriminalBackgroundRecords.com press release: http://www.criminalbackgroundrecords.com/news/CBR-Highly-Recommends-Background-Screening-for-Youth-League-Coaches.html