Care.com Background Check

Overview

Safe hiring begins with the Care.com Background Check (formerly referred to as CareCheck). To interact with families, all individual caregivers you can hire on Care.com must first pass the Care.com Background Check, performed by our vendor, Sterling/First Advantage. Upon successful completion of a Care.com Background Check, the caregiver’s profile displays a Care.com Background Check badge. Caregivers are subject to annual criminal checks while active on the site. These checks leverage various data sources to look for updates to a caregiver’s criminal record, using personal information provided by the caregiver.

When to use it

Care.com Background Checks are already run on all individual caregivers you can hire on Care.com. For privacy, reports are not shared with families seeking care.

What’s included

The Care.com Background Check includes the following:

• Social Security Number (SSN) Trace—This is an address locator search that compares the provided Social Security number to certain credit and public records data to help identify an individual’s address history, alternative names and aliases. This check is used to help our vendor, Sterling/First Advantage, determine the names and jurisdictions under which criminal records should be searched. The SSN Trace is not conducted through the Social Security Administration and may not be used as the basis for any employment decision, and it is not confirmation of an individual’s identity. Alias names derived from SSN Trace results are included in the Sex Offender Search (NSOPW) and Multi-Jurisdictional Database Search (described below), but they are not included in County Criminal Records or the Federal criminal searches.
• Multi-Jurisdictional Database Search—Sometimes referred to as a “National Criminal Database Search” or a “National Criminal File,” this is a multi-jurisdictional database search of certain publicly available and non-public purchased records from state, county, and other sources. The information available in the database varies by jurisdiction and may not cover all counties in a particular state or all criminal record history for a particular individual. The source records are subject to availability, and the results are subject to applicable federal and state reporting restrictions. For some jurisdictions, no information is available at all. For jurisdictions in which some criminal data is included, it may be limited to a subset of criminal convictions (e.g., the database may not include arrest information or all types of convictions). In addition, the frequency with which the records in this database are updated varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Sterling/First Advantage verifies any possible hits in this database against primary source records in the courts of original jurisdiction.
• Sex Offender Search (NSOPW)—This is a search of the Federal Department of Justice National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW). Reports from this check include sex offender registry data covering 49 states, excluding Nevada, and including the District of Columbia and US territories. This search is subject to federal and state limitations, availability, and applicable reporting limitations, and may not reflect an individual’s entire sex offender history.
• Federal Courthouse Records Search—This is a search of Federal US District Courts via the Federal Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system based on the last 7 years of the subject’s address history as derived from SSN Trace results. This check may report records relating to federal crimes (for example, money laundering, drug trafficking, kidnapping, counterfeiting, racketeering, and crimes committed across state lines). Sterling/First Advantage will report all available criminal history information that can be reported pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act and applicable state laws, which, depending on the jurisdiction, may not include history such as arrests, pending cases, or non-conviction records more than 7 years old.
• County Criminal Records Search—This is a search of criminal records for each county where the subject is believed to have lived in the past 7 years based on information provided by the individual and returned in the SSN Trace. This search is conducted electronically (where available) and manually, if necessary, in these counties. Sterling/First Advantage will report available criminal history information that can be reported pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act and applicable state laws, which, depending on the jurisdiction, may not include non-conviction records more than 7 years old. Due to legal restrictions in certain states (such as California, Kentucky, New Mexico, and New York), Sterling/First Advantage is prohibited from reporting most arrest or other non-conviction information, so only criminal convictions are typically reported. The search typically does not include records from magisterial courts in Pennsylvania or municipal courts in New Jersey.

Not all criminal history disqualifies an individual from participating in the Care.com platform. Care.com considers a variety of information about reported offenses, including the nature of the offense, the age of the offense, the age of the caregiver at the time of the offense, whether the offense was a felony or a misdemeanor, the disposition of the offense, any sentence that may have been imposed, and whether or not the sentence was successfully completed in determining whether an individual caregiver can participate in the platform. While it would be impossible to provide a comprehensive list of disqualifying offenses, dispositions, and sentences, Care.com generally takes offenses involving violence, sexual assault, exploitation, significant theft or fraud, and crimes involving drugs or alcohol that present a threat to public safety (e.g., driving under the influence and selling, distributing or trafficking illegal drugs) very seriously. If you want to see a report of a caregiver’s criminal history (subject to the caregiver’s authorization and applicable reporting limitations), you should purchase an Enhanced or Premium Background check. Employees of businesses who may message you through Care.com may not be background checked.

Special limitations for Massachusetts and New Hampshire

SPECIAL NOTICE FOR MASSACHUSETTS AND NEW HAMPSHIRE: The Criminal County Search conducted in Massachusetts and New Hampshire reports felonies and misdemeanors only for the Superior Court and a single District Court in the county seat or its equivalent in the named county and no other court in such county. Because the vast majority of criminal records are maintained in District Courts, the Criminal County Search may not reveal a caregiver’s entire criminal history in these states.

If you are considering a caregiver who has lived in Massachusetts, we recommend you run a statewide search of the Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) system. The cost to run a caregiver Required 2 CORI search is $25. View a list of criminal offenses that are commonly addressed by the District Courts.

If you are considering a caregiver who has lived in New Hampshire, we recommend you request a search of the New Hampshire State Police Criminal Records. This is an illustrative, non-comprehensive list of certain limitations of this check; additional limitations may apply in certain jurisdictions, including on the federal level.

State Criminal Records Search (New York Only)—Due to New York State’s criminal reporting system, a Criminal Records Check performed on New York residents may consist of a state-wide criminal records search of records at the county level instead of an individual county criminal records search. This search is designed to return felony and misdemeanor convictions at the county level in New York State during the prior 7 years.