New Background Check Proposed for Employees at Facilities for Disabled

When Illinois facilities that care for disabled people hire new staff, they are required to conduct criminal background checks. For most applicants, licenses must be verified.

But many facilities don't have to check whether new hires have ever been cited for abusing children — either their own kids or those living in care centers.

That may soon change as a state panel on Tuesday expressed support for expanding background checks for workers who care for the developmentally disabled.


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NY Governor Orders Background Checks of His Staff

Gov. David Paterson has ordered background checks of all executive chamber employees after learning that such a check had not been done on his chief of staff, who came under fire for failing to pay taxes.

Sixty percent of executive chamber employees didn't have completed background checks and some of the material employees submitted for the checks is lost, Paterson said in a statement Wednesday night.

The background checks, which are not required by law, were started by Paterson's predecessor, Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

The checks were designed to discover and avoid any conflicts of interest. Potentially, an employee could lose his or her job if the check discovered a conflict or some other major problem, such as a felony conviction, that the employee hadn't reported to the governor.

A background check had not been completed on Paterson chief of staff Charles O'Byrne, who failed to pay nearly $300,000 in taxes from 2001-2005.