The Role of Background Checks in Preventing Child Sexual Abuse

There will come a time in every parent’s life when they need to entrust their child’s care to someone outside the family. That might start with a babysitter, followed by their first preschool teacher. As a child grows, they’ll be left in the care of even more teachers, coaches, volunteers, and maybe even clergy members.

The hope is that your child will be well cared for and always find themselves in a safe environment. One way to support that is through background checks.

A background check is a review of a person’s professional and legal history. It verifies identification and searches through local, state, and federal databases for any past felonies, misdemeanors, or pending charges. Background checks can also include employment verification, credit history, and driving records. These checks should provide a potential employer with a comprehensive understanding of who they are hiring.

These background checks are especially vital when the prospective employee will be working around children. When a company or institution fails to conduct a background check and abuse occurs, it could lead to an actionable cause.

If your family is dealing with an incident of abuse, the issue of background checks will be crucial to investigate.

An experienced Charleston sexual abuse lawyer can help with that investigation and provide the right support for a family to help them seek accountability.

Are Background Checks Mandated in West Virginia?

Yes, background checks are mandated in West Virginia for certain regulated industries. Those industries primarily serve vulnerable populations in institutions that require state licensure, such as nursing homes and daycare centers.

These background checks run through the West Virginia Clearance for Access: Registry and Employment Screen (WV CARES) program. This program provides background checks and fingerprinting for all prospective employees.

Private and public employers are generally permitted to run pre-employment background checks. However, they are not federally or state-mandated.

Types of Background Checks Required for Youth Organizations

Although certain youth organizations are not mandated to require background checks, they often make it a prerequisite of employment. That can provide a measure of comfort for families who are enrolling their children into a program such as Little League or gymnastics.

You are well within your rights to ask which types of background checks are being conducted.

These are the components of a comprehensive and targeted background check:

• Criminal History Search: State and national background checks can include tasks such as FBI fingerprint checks to flag prior convictions.
• National Sex Offender Registry: Once an employee or volunteer’s identity has been verified, it can be cross-checked with the National Sex Offender Public Website. That will ensure that applicants are not registered sex offenders.
• Child Abuse & Neglect Registries: State-level registry checks search for past reports of abuse or neglect that may not have resulted in criminal charges.
• Professional References: It is also helpful to contact past employers to check on any potential behavioral “red flags.”

The hope is that background checks won’t reveal any concerns. If they do, then serious consideration should be given as to whether that person should be hired.

Understanding Negligent Hiring and Institutional Liability

When abuse occurs, background checks will be a primary concern in the investigation. Holding an organization accountable comes down to the issues of what they might have known or what they should have known about the abuser.

In order for you and your attorney to have a valid claim, you need to establish the following 5 elements of negligence:

• Duty: The organization or institution owes a duty of care to protect the public, in this case, children, from foreseeable harm.
• Breach: The organization or institution failed to exercise reasonable care during the hiring or screening process. This could refer to the lack of running a background check.
• Foreseeability: If the employee’s background revealed a criminal record, violent tendencies, or revoked licenses, that would be a clear indication that they were at risk for working with minors.
• Causation: This is the link between the specific unfitness of the employee and the cause of your child’s injuries.
• Damages: These would be all physical, emotional, or financial harm your child and family suffered from as a result of the abuse.

It is also important to remember that institutional liability doesn’t stop at the hiring process. An organization can also be held accountable if the employee remains on the payroll after red flags are discovered or complaints are filed.

There could also be an issue with failing to adequately monitor all employees.

These organizations should also immediately intervene in dangerous situations or enforce safety protocols.

Legal Recourse for Families After a Screening Failure

It is completely justified for a family to be devastated when a child is abused. That trauma can be compounded by the fact that the organization that hired the abuser did not conduct a thorough background check or failed to act on the clear warning signs of abuse.

When something like that happens, the family might have the right to pursue legal action against the institution.

In order to prevail in these claims, you need the support and guidance of dedicated attorneys who have worked in this area. The legal team at Hendrickson & Long, PLLC has helped many West Virginia families navigate the emotional trauma of a sexual abuse claim against a child.

When we agree to provide support, our team will conduct a deep dive into the organization’s hiring practices and the accused abuser’s records. We won’t stop at a basic local background check; we can look at records across the country and through numerous databases. Even if a background check was performed, an organization may still be liable if it was incomplete or if obvious red flags were disregarded.

Survivors may also be entitled to compensation for medical treatment, counseling, emotional trauma, and other damages resulting from the abuse. If your family believes that inadequate screening or negligent hiring contributed to a child’s abuse, we want to hear from you.

Contact Hendrickson & Long, PLLC today for a confidential consultation to discuss your legal options.

You no longer need to feel alone.