Bills over child care provider background checks draw ire from Va. religious groups
http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/general-assembly/bills-over-child-care-provider-background-checks-draw-ire-from/article_4da66226-cd77-528f-8d4b-cc0465ddcc2c.htmlIn 2012, Elly and Cameron Lafkin of Harrisonburg trusted their 3-month-old daughter, Camden, with a child care provider recommended by friends and on whom they did a public knowledge background check based on the provider’s name. The check did not turn up any suspicious results.
Then, after four weeks with the care provider, Cami was found unresponsive and rushed to an emergency room. After CPR efforts failed to revive her, she was pronounced dead.
“After Camden died, the police arrested (the provider) and fingerprinted her, and that’s unfortunately how we found out she had five alias names and she was on felony probation under one of the alias names,” Elly Lafkin said.
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he Lafkins are aiming to push those requirements even further this year. Similar bills in the House and Senate would require all providers — even those operating under a religious exemption — to undergo fingerprint background checks.
Some religiously exempt day care centers have voiced strong opposition to the bill, claiming it represents government overreach and unfairly targets ministry facilities. Currently, those facilities self-report to the Virginia Department of Social Services that their providers undergo name-based background checks.
“It feels like the Department of Social Services just wants to have authority over us,” said Pastor John W. Godfrey of Immanuel Baptist Church in Clifton Forge, which runs a day care center.
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But even with that money at stake, some who support religiously exempt day care facilities remain fiercely opposed to the bills.
The overarching fear is that expanding background check requirements could lead to the government controlling everything about ministry day care centers or even removing the religious exemption option altogether.
Orrock was among those who have raised reservations about the bill.
“Religious day care (centers) feel this is an overreach, and I must say I concur,” Orrock said.
Orrock included a sunset clause in his bill that would end Virginia’s fingerprint background check requirements should the federal government change its regulations.
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We view this through a religious liberty lens,” Zacharias said. “For the state to license any ministry of a church, in our perspective, is a violation of the separation of church and state and can lead to other kinds of controls beyond just safety controls.”
He said he believes the federal rules have been misinterpreted to impose further regulations on religiously exempt day care centers.
It’s not that he wants Virginia to refuse federal funds for low-income families, he said. He wants Virginia lawmakers to band together to challenge the federal regulation and protect religiously exempt institutions.
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I have my grandson in a religious exempt (day care center). It’s wonderful. I like that they’re getting Christ-centered education,” she said.
“However, I want to know his teacher does not have a criminal background. Just because you’re working in a church does not mean you don’t have a criminal background.”
Requiring fingerprint background checks, Taylor said, is the surest way to ensure that a child care provider does not have a criminal past. Unlike fingerprint checks, name-based background checks are not capable of exposing aliases.
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It's good to know they're not wanting to be afforded any "special rights" and that the concern is with the safety of the children, as always
= new reply since forum marked as read
I think I even listed a vague address (street name, no number) going back to age 10. It was ridiculous, since I thought they should only go back to my first address as a legal adult.
Yes, there is always some mandatory 2 hour, 6 hour course to take even though it has nothing to do with the practice you've enjoyed for the last ten years. 
I wonder if some of them are money makers for friends of people on the BON.
God (heh) forbid we make a nurse use some fking critical thinking.
Venting -- have had it up to my eyeballs with new grad RN's working in home health calling me -- today I got asked whether they could use tap water to do a bladder irrigation. I'm like "um remember we learned in school that the bladder is sterile and we should never introduce non-sterile fluids in...???" I have a feeling that she already USED tap water for the bladder flush and was looking for an Ok after the fact. I'm like "we ordered this last week...didn't you bring sterile saline or sterile H2O with you" oh no, she forgot. She has saline flushes though, can she use those ???
I feel so badly for these folks, they're just being churned out of school to make up for the already bad and getting worse RN shortage an they have NO clinical skills or common sense/critical thinking. It's *REALLY* bad with the RN's licensed in PA for some reason. I mean, I have had to call the HH Agency 2x's in the last month because of numbskull decisions by the RN's and about to make the third call about the tap water bladder flush.
