Senate passes legislation ensuring background screenings for all childcare organizations

Businesses and organizations rely on background screenings to ensure applicants are to be trusted with finances, sensitive information and consumer data and needs. Recently, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee passed legislation to ensure that organizations that provide care, supervision, instruction and recreation to children are able conduct and access background checks on all applicants. Authored by U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the legislation establishes a permanent background check system for businesses and organizations providing childcare to parents. The legislation has wide support from groups such as the Boys & Girls Club of America, Big Brothers Big Sisters and YMCA of the USA. "The Adam Walsh Act took many strong steps forward to preventing the mistreatment of children, and giving child care organizations access to nationwide background checks was an important one," explained Hatch. The background checks required by the Act, which was passed initially in 2006, are creating organizational headaches for local and state agencies. Precincts in Pennsylvania have hired new officers to handle the workload, according to The Altoona Mirror.