See the full announcement here.
The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed or closed many of our contracted electronic fingerprint vendor and local law enforcement agencies. This is preventing or significantly delaying our providers from completing the required fingerprint-based background check.
Effective immediately, the Department of Children, Youth, and Families’ (DCYF) administrative review and background check teams are implementing the following changes so the department can reduce turnaround times, safely remove barriers and effectively assess individuals who may provide care to children:
- Allow individuals who pass an in-state background check to have unsupervised access while fingerprints are pending.
- Removes crimes that do not relate directly to child safety, permanence or well-being while considering disproportionate impacts on individuals with criminal history.
- Eliminate duplicative fingerprint-based background checks.
- Discontinue secondary assessments of individuals who pass the background check and have criminal or negative action history.
- Streamline the administrative review process for all child welfare purposes, including group care.