Wisconsin Department of Children and Families - Division of Early Care and Education
Bureau of Early Care Regulation
Child Care Background Check Procedures
Prior to August of 2012, withholding information on a Background Information Disclosure (BID) form in violation of Wis. Stat. § 48.685(6) was deemed a permanent bar to licensure or certification and identified on the Barred Offenses Table. An administrative hearing decision in 2012, however, rejected this statutory interpretation. Revisions to the Barred Offenses Table in November of 2016 clarified that only a conviction or pending charge of Wis. Stat. § 48.685(2), (3), (4m)(b), or (6) associated with withholding information on a BID or the new Background Check Request form results in a permanent bar.
However, currently under Wis. Stat. § 48.686(4m)(a)7 and 48.686(4m)(a)8, if an applicant, licensee or certified operator or other individual subject to the background check law knowingly fails to report an offense or provides false information on the Background Check Request form, the individual may be subject to:
Denial or revocation of the regulatory approval;
A determination of ineligibility to reside or work in a child care program;
Special conditions or limitations restricting the individual’s contact with children in care;
Resubmittal of an accurate Background Check Request form;
Other enforcement actions.
The CBU and certification agency should clearly communicate to applicants, licensees or certified operators that they are responsible for reviewing all Background Check Request forms submitted for their household members and other individuals required to have a background check in the center. If the applicant, licensee or certified operator knew that inaccurate information was provided on the Background Check Request form, background check eligibility could be denied and/or regulatory approval could be denied or revoked.
Before taking any negative action, the CBU, certification agency or BECR must consider the circumstances when deciding whether the individual intentionally withheld or provided false information, or whether this could be an honest mistake. For instance, it would be difficult to imagine a person forgot that he or she was convicted of theft two years prior to completing the Background Check Request form. However, it is easy to imagine that a person made an honest mistake if he or she checked “yes” to convictions that did not appear on the criminal record and admitted confusion with the form and the intention to check “no.”
Note that a person might not realize that he or she has been involved in a child abuse or neglect investigation conducted by Child Protective Services (CPS) or has been identified in a substantiated finding as a maltreater. This is especially true for investigations that occurred prior to 1999, when CPS may not have provided due process to the persons against whom findings were made and frequently did not advise them of the substantiated findings. Individuals might fail to disclose this information in Section B of the Background Check Request form without intending to withhold the truth.
This page last updated 10/2019.