Houston’s Morningside Nannies

(October 31, 2008) The Association of Premier Nanny Agencies (APNA) is proud to honor Houston’s Morningside Nannies with APNA’s 2008 Agency of the Year award.  Twenty five years ago, Pat Cascio founded the first agency in Houston to specialize in nanny placement, and she is still on the job. Like many in the industry, Pat started her business because, I needed in-home care for my children, and I wasn’t comfortable with the screening provided by what were then known as domestic agencies.

Now Pat and other staffing agencies have access to an arsenal of professional background checkers and computerized court files to assist them in screening household staff. However, she says she still scrutinizes all applicants with the time-tested question, “Would I hire this nanny to care for my own children?”

Seasoned household staffing agencies know how important it is to meet each job candidate in person. Nanny services that operate only online are becoming more popular, says Ginger Swift, the APNA board member who oversaw the selection of the 2008 Agency of the Year. But the people who run most online-only job services never meet the applicants, and they do not conduct the type of background check an agency like Morningside Nannies would require before sending someone to your home.

Says Pat of her award, I had considered vying for APNA’s Agency of the Year award in the past, but I wasn’t sure my agency would be special enough to gain this national honor.  But this year, I celebrated 25 years in the industry, and I retired from my eight-year post as the International Nanny Association President. When I reflected on the contribution I have made to our industry, I felt more confident.

Because household staffing laws vary from state to state, agency owners such as Pat help us set industry standards, so we can provide a nationwide network of reliable agencies, says APNA President Annie Davis. To be an APNA member, agencies must put their contracts, applications and business practices up for scrutiny by their peers. Parents who want to make sure they are dealing with a quality nanny service should look for the APNA seal. I am extremely proud of all our members, but Pat deserves to be recognized for the years she has dedicated to this industry. She has more than earned the respect of her colleagues and associates. Pat, as all members, has always put the welfare of children first.

Contacts:
* Pat Cascio, Morningside Nannies, Houston, Texas (713)526-3989 pcascio@morningsidenannies.com, www.morningsidenannies.com/index.html

* Annie Davis, APNA President, (206) 227-1690, annied@drizzle.com www.anihouseholdstaffing.com?�

* Go to www.theAPNA.org to find an APNA agency in your community and valuable information for families and people seeking household jobs

Once Joshua recovered, Lexy realized how grateful she was to Children’s Miracle Network of Las Vegas, and she began donating a portion of every placement made through her agency, Nannies & Housekeepers USA, to that chapter.

When Lexy told her colleagues on the APNA board of directors her son’s story, they saw the parallel between what Children’s Miracle Network does, and what they do. Says Lexy APNA Philanthropic Committee Co-chair Claudia Kahn of The Help Company, APNA agencies assist people all over the United States, and we are very proud to be helping Children’s Miracle Network because it shares our goal of making a difference in families lives

The View
320 West 66th St.
New York, NY 10023

March 10, 2008

Re: The Dangers of Online Only Job Listings to Hire Nannies

To The View,

Job listing services such as Sittercity should not be confused with nanny agencies.

We feel it is important to raise a red flag about your segment last week on Sittercity, a service that lists families and nannies online.  Your guest stated that Sittercity allows users to  go through all the same steps that really expensive placement agencies do.  In our opinion that is not true. Some of the biggest problems with online job listing services are that they do not provide the personal investigation, matching and tools that a nanny agency uses to assure the confidentiality and security of its clients and its applicants seeking work.

Additionally, online job listing services can give the client a false sense of security by advertising a background check that offers minimum screening compared to what top notch nanny agencies would consider adequate. Many online job services, including Sittercity, allow parents to conduct an online LexisNexis background check for $9.99. Sittercity has a disclaimer that the LexisNexis check covers just 38 states (http://www.sittercity.com/help_detail.html?tag=bgcin). But some online job listing services call the LexisNexis check nationwide which can be misleading.

Top notch household staffing agencies require a computer background check, and much more, on each job candidate. Most quality agencies hire a seasoned professional to conduct background checks. You can read in detail about what a thorough background check entails on our web site at: http://theapna.org/blog.

Quality nanny agencies also meet each nanny candidate in person and check the candidate references and resume. Online job listing services often do not check qualifications or references. They simply advise parents to perform those tasks.

Careful, experienced household staffing agencies are the best way to protect children, but they also help ensure a job seeker’s safety. Katherine Olson of Minnesota was found dead last October, one day after she responded to an online ad for a nanny job.  The 19-year-old man police suspect placed the ad, where he posed as a parent seeking a nanny, is charged with her murder and awaiting trial.

A responsible staffing agency knows when one of its job candidates is being interviewed, and the candidate is expected to report in afterward.  The personal contact that a qualified agency provides is an added security measure for both candidates and the hiring families. That service also increases the chances a family will find a nanny that is right for them and decreases the chances of high turnover of nannies in their employment.

Additionally, many online job listing services post the nanny candidate’s picture with his or her job profile. Household employment attorneys do not advise posting candidates’ photos for both safety and legal reasons. Pictures can be a way for predators to choose victims or for potential employers to discriminate based on legally protected characteristics such as race or age.

The points listed above are the primary reasons that our organization does not grant membership to job services that operate only online.  Below is a list of some APNA members who would be willing to speak with you if you are interested in more information about the safest ways to find and become household staff.

Sincerely,

Guy Maddalone
on behalf of the APNA Board of Directors

By Lynn Peterson, President of PFC Information Services, Inc.

The quality of criminal background checks conducted by nanny agencies varies greatly. Agency A’s standard background check is a “National Criminal File” search. Agency B’s standard check includes county level criminal checks in the location or locations where the applicant has lived. It sounds as if Agency A’s check is more extensive. Wrong!
In reality, Agency B’s criminal checks are far superior. This isn’t readily apparent because the background screening industry uses confusing terminology to describe its products, and many Internet-based companies deliberately make misleading claims about their criminal checks’ contents.
The Non-Existent Nationwide Criminal Check

The National Criminal File (NCF) search sounds extremely good. However, the truth is that there is no such thing as a nationwide criminal records check. Even the FBI database is not truly nationwide. The FBI database (NCIC) does not include most misdemeanors. Many crime records never reach the FBI because they must be sent from the city and county, to the state. Then, from the state to the FBI, leaving numerous opportunities for a breakdown in the process. Nevertheless, the NCIC is the closest thing we have to a national criminal database, and it is far more comprehensive than the NCF.
The vast majority of data included in the NCF is made up of corrections records from state prisons. Only the most serious criminals are sent to state prison. Our company has been conducting background checks since 1987. We have found criminal records on approximately 7% of the applicants we have checked. Their offenses range from murder to jaywalking. One point to note, most of their convictions are for misdemeanors rather than felonies. Most of these individuals did not even go to jail, let alone serve time in a state prison. Since the NCF includes few misdemeanors, most of their records would never be found through an NCF search.

Case in Point:

One of our clients requested a background check on an applicant who was a CNA at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. Since she was licensed, she had been cleared through California’s criminal repository. Even so, our client requested a San Francisco county check.
We discovered she had been convicted of killing her boyfriend with a kitchen knife. She was sentenced to one year in jail, then probation. An NCF search would not have found her manslaughter conviction, as she was sent to jail rather than prison. The state repository did not have a record of her conviction, neither did the FBI.

The Claims:

While many of the companies offering NCF searches claim that data from state criminal repositories, corrections records, county criminal-court records, traffic records, and sex offender records are included, the truth is that these databases contain very little in the way of records from state repositories or county criminal courts. For example, the NCF does not include any data from Arizona’s most populous counties: Maricopa, Mohave, and Pima. Phoenix and Tucson are located in those counties. Arizona is considered a “premium state” by some background screeners because some rural counties are included. You really have to study the fine print to find out what is missing.
The largest of the NCF databases includes criminal repository records from only 10 states. Most of the state repositories include only some misdemeanors or none at all. In our experience, the vast majority of nanny candidates with criminal records have committed misdemeanors, not felonies. Many statewide repositories do not contain records from all counties, as the counties often fail to send records to the state repository.
There is another serious problem with the NCF– much of the data is stale. For example, some versions of the NCF include a “Florida courts database from all 67 counties”. The problem is that the database is only updated every six months, or even less frequently.
An additional problem exists. Most records in the NCF databases do not include identifiers, like Social Security numbers or dates of birth. Run an NCF search on someone with a common name, and you will receive many records that have absolutely nothing to do with your applicant. You will have to request county criminal checks where records are reported to determine whether the NCF records are relevant.

The Most Thorough Background Check:

Many companies offering National Criminal File (NCF) searches claim that information from state criminal repositories, corrections records, county criminal- court records, traffic records, and sex offender records are included. The truth is that the NCF and similar databases contain very little in the way of records from state repositories or county criminal courts. The most thorough background searches encompass separate state and county checks everywhere the subject has lived.
STATEWIDE CRIMINAL CHECKS:
When the criminal records process works as it should, law enforcement and courts send information about arrests, court filings, and incarcerations to their respective state records repositories. In some states, the records are public. In others, access is limited to law enforcement and the courts.
Unfortunately, the quality of the state repository information varies a great deal. As of 2003, a handful of states still did not use computer editing and verification programs to ensure data quality. Moreover, county courts often fail to send disposition or other information to their state repository, which has a significant impact on the quality of statewide searches.
Our company provides statewide searches for Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Some of these are state repository records searches, and some are criminal court data searches. While there are additional states that allow access to their criminal repositories, data from the other states may be grossly incomplete. From a quality perspective, a county records check may be a better option in the states not listed above.
A word of warning about statewide criminal records: the NCF and some other vendors claiming they provide state criminal checks are actually providing state corrections searches, and calling them “criminal searches.” If a subject has been placed on probation, released from prison, or is sentenced to county jail rather than state prison, it is likely a criminal record will not be found with one of these searches.

COUNTY CRIMINAL CHECKS:

In a location where a statewide check is not a viable option, a county check is the only way to search for criminal records. Despite the inherent geographic limitations of a county criminal search, it is still the prevailing method by which criminal records are checked in the U.S.
It is surprising in this day and age that less than 30% of county criminal records are available online. As a result, in the majority of jurisdictions, a human being must be injected into the research process.
Normally called “court runners”, they are dispatched to a courthouse to check records manually. If there is a match with the subject’s name, the physical case file needs to be pulled and examined to determine whether the defendant’s birth date matches the candidate’s, what the offense was, and whether the defendant was convicted. Because county criminal checks still involve “gum shoe” methods, they take longer than online state checks.

BUYER BEWARE!

The bottom line is that there is no 100% foolproof way to check for criminal records. Record keeping is still so fragmented, it is quite possible you won’t find someone’s criminal past. While some searches are geographically broader that does not mean they are better.
Staffing agencies need to adopt a buyer beware attitude when evaluating background screening firms. While many offer inexpensive checks which are available online instantly, what those companies are really providing is a false sense of security. There is simply no viable substitute for a tightly focused, county court search, and/or a statewide check in the locations where the individual has lived.
PFC Information Services, Inc., in Oakland, CA provides public records research for employers, law firms, corporations, lenders, venture capitalists, the media, and others. Pre-employment background checks are among the public records research conducted by PFC.
PFC is an APNA Sponsor Member & offers discounted rates to APNA members
Tips from PFC Information Services:
?�
Parents frequently ask about Sex Offender searches. These searches are free, easy, and available to the public at the U.S. Department of Justice web site: http://www.nsopr.gov This site includes sex offender information from all 50 states. However, some states only provide information on their most serious sex offenders. If you are not routinely conducting this search on all candidates, you may want to consider doing so.

Social Security Numbers
Contrary to what many assume, it is not possible to “plug ” a Social Security number into a criminal records database and find all of a person’s criminal convictions. Criminal records are indexed by a defendant’s name. Therefore, the correct spelling of a name is critical to obtaining accurate results. If a person has used other names, they should also be checked. If a name match is found, a date of birth is required to determine whether the records are relevant.

Want to know if a candidate’s Social Security number is valid? Click this box to connect to the free, web site, www.ssnvalidator.com. It will tell you if a SSN has been validly issued, as well as when and where it was issued.

Don’t Get Tripped Up
Numerous crime mapping studies have shown that criminals generally commit crimes within 1 or 2 miles of their homes. If you check the locations where individuals have lived and worked, the chances of finding their records are maximized. Therefore, it is critical for an agency to request a Social Security Number verification from its background screening vendor, as the SSN verification includes an address history. This address history should be checked against the candidate’s application for inconsistencies.

Many in the background screening business refer to the National Criminal File as the NCF. However, it is called other things, too. For example, the “National Super Search”; the “National Comprehensive Criminal Check”; and the “Multi-State Criminal Check”.

 (January 2, 2008)  The Georgia parents who hired the nanny under investigation for abusing their 13-month old boy had paid for a background check on her What they didn’t know is that the $10 computer background search the online nanny service conducted on their behalf could easily miss past problems, says Judi Merlin, owner of the Athens, Georgia nanny placement agency A Friend of the Family.  Merlin has more than 20-years experience in the field and is an active board member with the Association of Premier Nanny Agencies  A Household Staffing Alliance (APNA).
She continues,  The online agency the family used even has a disclaimer on its web site that the computer background check they run does not cover every state  red flag right there! Top notch nanny agencies will require that applicants social security numbers are traced to identify every state in which they have lived. That information is used to check records in those states a process that costs more than $10.
APNA Sponsor Member PFC Information Systems specializes in background checks.?� Owner Lynn Peterson explains what it really takes to dig in to a nanny’s past I’ve found that most nanny candidates with criminal records have committed misdemeanors which rarely show up on the various nationwide computer searches that are offered. Felonies are more likely to be listed. So, the nationwide computer check sounds good, but it probably won?��t find a person’s minor run-ins with the law which can tell you a good deal about their past and their character.
Seasoned household staffing agencies know of this pitfall in criminal record tracking. They are also aware of the sad fact that many misdemeanor records that are supposed to be forwarded to state or national databases don’t get sent, get lost or end up misfiled. That is why they hire experts to help them. There is simply no substitute for a county, criminal-court search and a statewide check in every location where an individual has lived, says Peterson. It takes time and knowledge to do it right. And most importantly, it should be a human being conducting that search, not a computer.
It is very important to work with a staffing agency that knows how to screen and takes the time to interview each job candidate in person, says APNA Member Stuart Dupuy of Mom’s Best Friend in Austin, Texas. Online web sites do not meet nanny applicants. It’s one of the primary reasons APNA does not accept online agencies as members.
Merlin adds, The number of families with household staff is growing, and we are working hard to let people know that APNA member agencies provide services that parents should leave to the experts. Most parents simply don’t know how to analyze a nanny’s resume, run a background check, catch a phony reference or ask the tough questions. But it’s what agencies do all day everyday. Parents who want to make sure they are dealing with a quality nanny service should look for the APNA seal.

Nanny Agencies Protect Children & Nannies
Minnesota Woman’s Death may be Linked to Online Job Ad

(October 2007) Parents who use a staffing agency to find a nanny do so as a way to protect their children, but agencies also help ensure the nannies safety,  says Annie Davis, president of the Association of Premier Nanny Agencies-A Household Staffing Alliance.  The apparent murder of 24-year-old Katherine Anne Olson of Minnesota is prompting this APNA alert. Olson was found dead the day after she responded to an online ad for a nanny job. The 19-year-old man police suspect placed the ad is under arrest in connection with Olson’s death.

We gather a good deal of information about our clients before we begin working with them to find household employees, says Denise Collins, an APNA board member and owner of Aunt Anne’s In-House Staffing Agency in San Francisco If anyone we send to be interviewed has a bad experience with the potential employer, we will follow up. If we discover that the client is consistently unpleasant, or worse, we will terminate our contract with them.  On top of screening families, we know when they are interviewing a job candidate, and all parties know we are waiting to hear how it went.

Online ads may seem like the answer in a busy world, but staffing agencies are still the safest, most effective way to make household placements, says APNA Board Member Guy Maddalone, CEO of GTM Household Employment Experts in Clifton Park, New York and author of How to Hire a Nanny.Families and job seekers should look for the APNA seal when choosing an agency to help them.

APNA was founded in 1993 with the intention of raising the bar in the household staffing industry, and many APNA members are pioneers in the field. The APNA seal is like a Good Housekeeping seal of approval for nanny and household staffing agencies. Go to http://www.theapna.org/ to find an APNA agency in your community, as well as valuable information for families and people seeking household jobs.