Georgia's Monitoring of Childcare Providers Ensured Provider Compliance With State Criminal Background Check Requirements

Why OIG Did This Audit

The Child Care and Development Block Grant Act (CCDBG Act) of 2014 added new requirements for States that received funding from the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) to conduct comprehensive criminal background checks on staff members and prospective staff members of childcare providers every 5 years. Criminal background check requirements apply to any staff member who is employed by a childcare provider for compensation or whose activities involve the care or supervision of children or unsupervised access to children.

Our objective was to determine whether Georgia's monitoring of childcare providers ensured provider compliance with State requirements related to criminal background checks established under the CCDBG Act.

How OIG Did This Audit

We analyzed and tested a population of 2,617 licensed childcare centers and family homes that received CCDF funding during State fiscal year (SFY) 2018. We used geographic area, total capacity, and total CCDF funding received to select 15 childcare center providers and 15 family home providers. In total, we reviewed supporting documentation for 312 individuals who were current employees or household members at 30 different childcare provider locations.

What OIG Found

Georgia's monitoring process ensured provider compliance with State requirements related to criminal background checks at 29 of 30 childcare provider locations reviewed. Of the 312 individuals we reviewed, 311 (over 99 percent) had all required checks at the time of our data requests and site visits.

Georgia officials said that, for SFY 2019, it conducted a monitoring visit to the provider on December 19, 2018, and a licensing study on June 12, 2019. For SFY 2020, Georgia has scheduled the provider for a monitoring visit between October and December 2019 and a licensing study between April and June 2020. Therefore, this error occurred outside of Georgia's scheduled monitoring and licensing visits and appears to be an anomaly.

What OIG Recommends

Except for one instance, Georgia's monitoring process ensured provider compliance with State requirements related to criminal background checks established under the CCDBG Act. Therefore, we have no recommendations. Georgia did not provide formal comments on our draft report. However, Georgia told us that it did not have any disagreements with our findings.