Avonda Fox of Texas suffered a horrific loss when her 4-year-old son, Jacob, died due to negligence by a child care center. Jacob was left in a van for an unknown period of time in 103 degree heat. To elude police of guilt, Jacob’s body was placed at a local park. When the child care provider was arrested, her fingerprints were taken and Fox learned that the woman caring for her children had an extensive criminal history, including assault and an arrest for theft. Not only did the director have a criminal record, but many of the other employees did as well.

How important is it that child care providers have a background check? On August 1, the Washington State Auditor's Office released a report, "Protecting Children from Sex Offenders in Child Care, Foster Care, and Schools." They conducted an audit within the state to determine if matching the state's sex offender registry to information on child care and foster care providers and school employees would reveal results similar to Inspector General reports in other states like Illinois and Kentucky.

Background checks for child care providers are essential to ensure that individuals who have a history of violent offenses are not licensed to provide child care or hired to work in a child care center.

Child Care Aware® of America (formerly the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies, NACCRRA), has released a new research paper, “Why Aren’t We Outraged? Children Dying in Child Care Across America.”