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Nanny Background Check - Assure Your Childs Safety

By: Matt A. Thomas

Selecting who should be a nanny for your children can be a painstaking process. You want to take great care in choosing who is going to be watching over your child's safety when you can't take care of them yourself. Finding out the history of your prospective nanny is imperative.

A nanny background check should be run on any serious nanny candidates you may have. They may "interview well" but that shouldn't be your sole criteria for choosing them. You may even find out that they are criminal felons or convicted sex offenders!

Make sure you include the following questions that you may ask your prospective nanny:

* What makes you think you want to be a nanny?

* What interests you most about taking care of kids?

* What caused you to look for new employment?

* What make you discipline a child and what sort of punishment do you hand out?

* Mental development for my child is very important to me. How do you engage their minds that is different from other nanny's?

* My child's physical development is important to me. Is there anything you would do differently than other candidates for this position?

* How do you encourage learning?

* Have you ever taught art and music to kids? How did you go about it?

* Do you have experience playing outside as well as inside?

* What are some of your favorite activities?

* What would you do if a child threw a tantrum or was just irrational?

Before doing a formal nanny background check, make sure that your nanny applicant knows that you plan on searching his or her background. This should not be a surprise and any potential nanny that gives you problems or refuses to submit to a background check is most likely a nanny applicant who should be passed over.

The best way to get some of the basic information you will need is to have each nanny applicant fill out an application. On this application ask for references and current contact information for each reference. You should also ask for a quick rundown of his or her employment history and residence history.

Verify that the entire job application is completed. Verify that all information is present and includes their driver's license and social security numbers along with their date and place of birth. Now follow up on the references they provide and make sure they are accurate. If a reference can't be reached, have them provide an alternate one.

Get a copy of their current identification (with photo). Then have them sign a consent statement so that you can easily perform a background search on them.

A good nanny background check should include:

Identity Verification: Make sure that the nanny's social security and drivers' license number really belongs to him or her.

DMV Records: You'd be surprised what you can learn from a driving record. In addition to the more mundane speeding tickets, you may find that there are multiple DUI's or reckless driving. These are not the acts of a responsible nanny.

Financial Records: This is a good way to verify the accuracy of the information your candidate gave you. It will show their previous employers and previous addresses in addition to how well they manage their money. If they're habitually late in payments, perhaps they are living beyond their means and may even be tempted to steal from you to make their payments!

Criminal Records: A criminal records check is usually limited to a state wide check, but you can also contact the states listed on the financial check to see if your applicant has a record in those states. A nationwide check is not usually an option. As part of this criminal records check you will absolutely want to run a Sex Offender check. Obviously anybody who is listed as a sex offender is a dangerous choice for a nanny.

It's always better to be safe than sorry when checking out your nanny's background. You want to make sure that your kids are in the safe hands of a trusted individual. A qualified nanny understand this and has no issue with you checking them out to assure the child's safety.

Article Source: http://www.articlebankonline.com

Matt A. Thomas is a publisher of Court-Records.info. He provides additional details on nanny background check information and business resources where you can explore at any time, at any hour, on his website.

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