child care

audit, child care, children, finger, ghost, Mississippi

Mississippi: Fingerprint verification for subsidized services, finally

Mississippi implements finger scan system for daycare (The Commercial Appeal – Memphis, TN)

Under the system being implemented by the state Department of Human Services, parents must use a finger scanner to sign their children in and out. Proponents say it will save money and cause parents to visit preschools more often, but opponents argue the system is intrusive and creates technical headaches.

About 18,000 children will be affected by the move.

You have to read between the lines, but this is at least partly a ghost-busting mission within government-subsidized child care.

We first commented on this deployment in September of last year in Biometric deployment winners and losers. Follow the links for great examples of arguments made in opposition to tightening up ID management.

More here.

Not only does a fingerprint biometric raise the burden of proof that subsidized services are actually being provided, it makes it harder for unauthorized individuals to remove a child from a child care facility.

AFIS, child care, criminal background check, fingerprint, Georgia, US

US: Background check requirements for working in child care facilities

Fingerprint background checks for day care workers in Georgia (Biometric Update)

Georgia’s governor, Nathan Deal has just signed a bill into law that will see national fingerprint and criminal record searches performed for day care workers.

Georgia is joining the 32 states* requiring a check of the FBI fingerprint database and 30 states that require a sate-level fingerprint check for employment as a child care provider.

A table of state-by-state Child Care Center Regulations [pdf] compiled by Child Care Aware® of America shows which states require fingerprint searches of state and federal databases.

Here’s a summary:

The linked pdf contains information on what type of background check (Federal fingerprints, state fingerprints, criminal record check, child abuse registries, sex offender registries) is conducted in each jurisdiction.

The document is current as of April 17, 2013 and the aforementioned table has notes changes in the law that aren’t yet in force.

Observations:
A few states require a search against one of the fingerprint databases but not the other.
Many states require a search against both fingerprint databases but not the state’s sex offender registry.

*plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Department of Defense. The study accounts for 52 political entities referred to as “states” throughout this post.

child care, finger, Mississippi

Mississippi pauses Biometrics pilot for subsidized child care vouchers

The Mississippi program to bring rigor to the identity management protocols of providers who receive parent-controlled vouchers for caring for children in poor families is still struggling.

We first wrote about this deployment here in “Biometric deployment winners and losers.”

Since then, the Jackson Free Press has published two more articles that warrant mention.

Following the DHS Scanner Money

DHS Pauses Finger Scan Expansion.

This story continues to provide good examples of the technical challenges associated with large scale biometric deployments as well as the management challenges of increasing oversight and accountability.