Effective October 1, 2018, the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) requires all group care staff, including those not working directly with children, to complete a fingerprint-based background check before they can work in the group care facility.
The Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) implemented a provisional hire process to allow these staff members to work for up to 120 days while their fingerprint background check was pending as we worked with the Office of the Administration for Children and Families to adopt this rule. However, we were recently told by our federal partners that our provisional plan does not meet the federal funding requirements in Title IV-E established by the FFPSA.
Effective July 1, 2019, DCYF will no longer have a provisional hire background check process. All group care staff must complete the fingerprint-based background check before they can work in the facility.
Any application received by the Background Check Unit on or after July 1 for a group care staff new hire will require a completed fingerprint-based background check before the applicant can work in the facility, even if the applicant may not work directly with children.
Additionally, DCYF must receive fingerprint results on or before July 31, 2019, for group care applicants who were on provisional hire status prior to July 1 and have not completed the fingerprint portion of the background check. This will require those applicants to schedule and submit fingerprints by July 15.
To help with processing times, please submit background check requests timely and encourage applicants to schedule and submit fingerprints as soon as possible.
We’re working with our electronic fingerprint vendor IDEMIA to secure additional fingerprint appointments in Everett, Seattle, Renton, and Spokane in the second week of July. We will send additional details about fingerprinting times and locations in the near future.