CHECKS PART OF HIRING PROCESS

Criminal background checks have become a part of the hiring process at area child-care facilities and nursing homes.

Yet, few appear to use the nearly 2-year-old Missouri law allowing such businesses to obtain extensive reports from the Missouri Highway Patrol on the criminal history of prospective employees.

Day-care center operators say they screen job applicants through a background search conducted by the Missouri Division of Family Services. The state requires background searches to license day-care facilities.

Operators of three nursing homes in the area say background checks are part of their hiring process, too, but only one of the three, the Lutheran Home, uses the highway patrol for background checks. The Jackson Manor Nursing Home and the Cape Girardeau Nursing Center use private companies.

The law opening up criminal history records to day-care facilities and nursing homes took effect in September 1993.

Prospective employees must give their consent before such records will be disclosed.

For $5, the patrol's criminal records division in Jefferson City will do a background check, using the applicant's name and Social Security number.

For $14, a more detailed check will be done, using fingerprints. Those background checks include records typically closed to the public, such as suspended imposition of sentence convictions.

Lt. Bob Gartner, director of the criminal records and identification division, said fingerprint analysis is the only way to be absolutely certain that the criminal history is the applicant's.

The background checks will disclose a person's entire criminal history, including any arrests in the United States.

Gartner said that over the years, the state has made criminal records available to an increasing number of employers, including child-care and nursing home operators, elementary and secondary schools, and ambulance services.

"Basically, what they have done is open up criminal history records that were used solely for law enforcement purposes," he said.

Gartner said his office handles from 5,000 to 10,000 such records requests each month.

But Cape Girardeau and Jackson day-care operators said they use the Division of Family Services background check because the Missouri Bureau of Child Care Safety and Licensure requires it.

Brenda Pfefferkorn, who operates Tender Care Playhouse in Jackson, said the Family Services check costs the same as the highway patrol's.

"So why would you spend $10 for both?" she asked.

The Family Services background check, however, isn't as extensive. It focuses entirely on child abuse and neglect.

The check shows whether an applicant has been investigated for child abuse and neglect in substantiated cases.

Pfefferkorn said she would like to have an applicant's entire criminal history, but the state doesn't allow day-care operators to use the patrol search instead of the Family Services background check.

Day-care operators Kaye Clemens and Kaye Hamblin said they are satisfied with the Family Services background check.

Clemens operates Cinnamon Bear & Co. preschool in Cape Girardeau and says her only complaint is that it can take several weeks to get back the background check.

Hamblin operates KinderCare Learning Center in Cape Girardeau and says background checks have been a part of the center's hiring process for several years.

"We started doing it even before the state required we do it," she said.

The Lutheran Home has been using the patrol's background checks for a couple of months.

"It really helps," Lutheran Home Personnel Director Pam Cagle said.

But, Jackson Manor Nursing Home and the Cape Girardeau Nursing Center rely on private firms and see no need to use the patrol's service.

"I have been screening for three years," Jackson Manor Administrator Dave Walker said. He pays $25 per applicant to a Colorado-based company to conduct criminal history and workers' compensation checks.

The Cape Girardeau Nursing Center is part of a large corporation, Beverly Enterprises of Fort Smith, Ark.

The corporation has hired a company to perform background checks for all of its facilities.

"I feel real comfortable with it," local administrator Lori Bainter said.