Durbin, Grassley Celebrate Senate Passage Of Bill Securing Nationwide Background Checks For Child Care Workers

Durbin, Grassley Celebrate Senate Passage Of Bill Securing Nationwide Background Checks For Child Care Workers

The CHILD Act passed the Senate unanimously this evening

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, celebrated passage of their bipartisan Comprehensive Health and Integrity in Licensing and Documentation (CHILD) Act to ensure all individuals with unsupervised access to children-including contractors hired by schools-are authorized to receive a nationwide background check.

"Kids in schools should be surrounded by the most qualified, caring staff. A loophole in federal law inadvertently complicated the process for requesting background checks for some child care workers, namely school contractors. This bill is a simple fix to ensure nationwide access to background checks for those entrusted with our children. I'm glad to see the Senate pass it unanimously, and I encourage the House to pass it expeditiously," said Durbin.

"Every individual who works with children must be thoroughly vetted - it's common sense. The bipartisan CHILD Act will ensure all child care workers, including contractors, are authorized to receive a nationwide background check. I'm glad the Senate acted unanimously to pass this important legislative fix, and I urge my colleagues in the House of Representatives to do the same," said Grassley.

Since 1993, individuals who have access to children through qualified entities have been subject to nationwide background checks, pursuant to the National Child Protection Act/ Volunteers for Children Act ("NCPA/VCA"). However, the Child Protection Improvements Act of 2018 ("CPIA") amended the NCPA/VCA and inadvertently narrowed its scope such that contractors working for qualified entities are no longer expressly authorized to receive a nationwide background check.

The CHILD Act will allow businesses and organizations to once again request nationwide background checks for their personnel working with vulnerable populations, as well as for individuals that the businesses or organizations license or certify to provide care for these populations.

The CHILD Act is endorsed by Students Against Destructive Decisions; Student Transportation & Education Equity; Roundtable; Parents Helping Parents, Inc.; National Diversity Coalition; RaisingHOPE, Inc.; National Center on Adoption & Permanency; HopSkipDrive; and Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE).

Bill text is available here.

A one-pager of the legislation is available here.

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