Wisconsin Department of Children and Families - Division of Early Care and Education
Bureau of Early Care Regulation
Child Care Certification Policy Manual
If a sanction is due to a barred offense (for the applicant / operator) in accordance with the Background Check Law, and the certification worker has coded the denial / revocation accurately in WISCCRS, the information will become part of future background check results for the applicant/operator. The denial or revocation will be displayed on the DHS (IBIS) letter if a background check is conducted on the applicant in the future.
To avoid a barred offense by a household member (or other individual) being sent to the IBIS under the applicant / operator’s name, the category coding in WISCCRS needs to be ‘DCF 13-Other*’ (when enforcement is not due to applicant/operator’s barred offense). The certification worker uses the Enforcements Module to signify who the enforcement is “due to” when it is a background check law-related enforcement.
A certification agency may receive an inquiry call from another agency / business conducting a background check on an applicant for employment. If the individual has had a certification denied or revoked due to the Background Check Law, this information is accessible to potential employers who conduct background checks. Uploading the sanction letter in WISCCRS is critical to ensure the applicant/operator’s certification record will indicate whether the denial / revocation (as indicated in IBIS) is due to the applicant or household member, particularly in cases where the sanction (category status) was coded incorrectly by a certification worker.
Certification workers should not disclose confidential information, such as CPS findings, AODA, juvenile, mental health, health records, etc. but may inform the potential employer whether or not the sanction (denial/revocation) was due to a barred offense committed by the applicant/operator or another individual subject to the background check law. Best practice, however, is for the certification agency to respond to such inquiries using their own open records request procedures or via the agency’s records custodian.
With any sanction/enforcement, including those that are viewed via the IBIS, the applicant/operator would have received written notice from the certification agency. The certification worker may suggest that the caller/potential employer contact the applicant/operator for more detail. The certification worker may state that the “sanction was due to a barred offense by the applicant/operator” or “the sanction was due to a barred offense not by the applicant/operator but by another individual subject to the Background Check Law.”
To ensure the sanction is coded accurately, see the WISCCRS User Guide –Changes for step by step instructions for revocations / suspensions and see the WISCCRS User Guide – Creating New Provider Records if a new / initial or recertification application has been denied due to the Background Check Law.
This page last updated 01/2020.