General Licensing

All operations except listed family homes, employer-based child care operations, and shelter care operations must submit background checks electronically through the Child-Care Licensing Account login page. Other methods of submission will not be accepted.

Please note that the information you enter must be complete and accurate when you click submit. If you reenter a background check because your first submission was incorrect, you will be charged $2 for each submission. (§§745.617; 745.619)

There are several different types of background checks that may be required. The type of background check required depends on the person's role and your operation type. Please see the Background Check homepage to learn more. The following roles require a background check:

• The director, owner, and/or operator of the operation (including a sole proprietor, a partner in a partnership, or a chief executive officer of an operation),
  • This does not include an individual who is only a member of the governing body or board of directors of a corporation or association that owns or governs an operation;
• Each employee of the operation that is housed at the operation's location,
• Each prospective employee of the operation, and
• Each person, at least 14 year of age who is not a client in care, who:
  • Is counted in child-to-caregiver ratios;
  • Resides or will reside in the operation; or
  • Has unsupervised access to children in care at the operation.
• Each current or prospective foster parent providing foster care through your child-placing agency, and
• Each prospective adoptive parent seeking to adopt through your child-placing agency,
• Household members in the foster and adoptive homes, and
• Caregivers in foster and adoptive homes.
• Each person 14 years of age or older, other than a client in care, who will regularly or frequently be present at an operation or prospective adoptive home while children are in care.
• Persons associated with a Listed Family Home that provides care to only related children.

You can find more information regarding which individuals need background checks in 26 TAC §745.601.

Note: You do not have to request a background check on a professional who is licensed or is required to have a background check to meet compliance with another governmental entity's requirements if:

• You do not employ or contract with the professional.
• The professional will only be present at the child-care operation in an official capacity.

For day care operations, you obtain written parental consent before allowing the professional to have unsupervised access to a child in care.

Individuals with professional licensing or certification who have had a background check completed through another government entity includes, but is not limited to, Early Childhood Intervention workers, physical therapists, speech therapists, counselors, and psychologists.

Please see Fingerprinting page for further information regarding the fingerprinting process.

Please see Background Check Fees page to learn about fees for background checks, and who is responsible for paying them.

There are six types of background checks:

• FBI Fingerprint-based Criminal History check
• Name-based Texas Criminal History check
• Central Registry check
• Out-of-state Criminal History check
• Out-of-state Child Abuse and Neglect Registry check
• Out-of-state Sex Offender Registry check

When entering a background check through the Child Care Account portal, the required background check types will be automatically selected based on operation type, person's role at the operation, and out-of-state residency.

You can find more information regarding required background checks in 26 TAC §745.609, §745.611, §745.613, and §745.615.

A person is regularly or frequently present at a child-care operation when that person:

• is present at the operation three or more times in a 30-day period;
• visits or resides in the operation for more than seven days;
• visits or resides in the operation three or more times per year for visits that last more than 48 hours at a time; or
• is present at the operation on a scheduled basis.

At child day care operations, parents or legal guardians are not considered to be regularly or frequently present if they are only at the operation to pick up or drop off their child, or if they are visiting their child during the day. If the parent or legal guardian is present to volunteer at the operation on a scheduled basis, then that would be considered regularly or frequently present.

See TAC §745.601 for more information.

The HHSC Child Care Licensing Centralized Background Check Unit processes background checks.

Requests for background checks are submitted to HHSC, and results are sent to the operation through an eligible or ineligible notification letter from the CLASS Project e-mail box. The CCL monitoring inspector communicates with the CBCU inspector to ensure that all background check requirements are met. You may also find your CBCU inspector or contact the CBCU Support Line here.

All criminal history searches include a search of the Texas Sex Offender Registry.

The check includes a search between a person's name and the DPS database of arrests for alleged crimes committed in Texas and dispositions and DPS database for the Texas sex offender registry.

If the person is your spouse, you must request a fingerprint-based check at the time of your application. However, you don't need to complete the fingerprint-based check at the time of the application - you can complete it when your spouse returns to your residence.

If the household member is not your spouse and is stationed with the military outside of Texas, the fingerprint-based checks upon the person's return to your residence.

After the CBCU processes the background check, the CBCU sends you a notification. The CBCU determines if the person has any criminal or Central Registry history by conducting a search using the person's identifying information (name, date of birth, Social Security number) or fingerprints. You must receive an Employment Eligibility Notification to determine that the person has been marked eligible. If the person is not eligible, you will receive an Employment Ineligible Determination Notification.

Below are the types of eligibility notifications you may receive:

Eligible Determination Notification
If the person is eligible, your operation receives notification by email or mail after all background check types are completed. An eligible determination means this person is allowed to be present at your operation. The email subject line for eligible notifications includes the subject's name, the operation number, and operation name.

Ineligible Determination Notification
If the person is ineligible for any type of check, your operation receives notification by email or mail. The email subject line for this notification includes the subject's name, operation number, and operation name.

Provisional Determination Notification
If the person is "provisional", your operation receives notification by email or mail. A provisional determination means this person is allowed to be present at your operation under conditions listed in the notification. The email subject line for this notification includes the subject's name, operation number, and operation name.

Conditional Determination Notification
If the person is "conditional", your operation receives notification by email or mail. A conditional determination means this person is allowed to be present at your operation under conditions listed in the notification. The email subject line for this notification includes the subject's name, operation number, and operation name.

1. You are never in charge of the operation.
2. You are never alone with a child or group of children in the care of or enrolled in the operation, including during transportation.
3. You may only be supervised by a person with no conditions regarding his or her presence at the operation.
4. You never transport children in the care of or enrolled in the operation during hours of operation.
5. You are never responsible for financial transactions at the operation.
6. You never administer medication to children in the care of the operation, except for in a medical emergency to prevent the death or serious bodily injury of a child.
7. You are never allowed to supervise caregivers, or volunteers or employees that have access to children.

Notification of background check results are sent after they have been received and processed by CBCU.

If the background check request was submitted within the past seven calendar days, the background check may still be processing.

To verify if your background check was submitted correctly, first log-in to your Child-Care Licensing account, and then select "Online Background Check History" from the Child-Care Provider Main Page. Locate the person's name on the list. Next to this information, the Employment Status column will list "Active," "Pending" or "Inactive."

Note: If the name of the person requested is not listed in the Online Background Check History page, you must resubmit the background check request.

An eligibility status of "Pending" indicates that the request was successfully submitted to the background check unit.

If it has been more than seven calendar days since the request was submitted and the subject of the background check has been fingerprinted and you have not received the eligibility notification, please check the Junk/Spam mail folder of your email account. If you find it there, you need to signify that these are not "Junk" or "Spam" in order to receive future notifications in your email inbox. For details, see the Troubleshooting Tips on the last page of the Registration Tutorial on the Child Care Licensing Account login page.

If there are questions about not receiving the results by email, first look in the Junk/Spam mail of the email service to see if they are there. Many mail servers will filter email when there are mass mailings. You will need to signify that these are not Junk or Spam in order to receive notification by email.

If you have not received any results within seven calendar 3 days of submitting the background and the subject of background check has been fingerprinted, or believe you may have made a technical error when submitting the background check contact your CBCU representative.

For information on how to contest the information found in a person's DPS result, see the following:

• Criminal History Error Resolution
• Procedure for Review of Personal Criminal History Record Information for Personal Review (PDF)

For information on how to contest the information found in a person's FBI result, see the following pages:

• FBI Identity History Summary Checks

A background check request must only be submitted if the person's eligibility notifications indicate submission is required at additional operations.

Each operation is required to keep a copy of the original background check request or results as proof that a background check was submitted on an individual.

If a person has lived in another US state or territory outside of Texas during the previous five years, an Out-of-State Abuse/Neglect History check may be required. A notice about the requirement of this check type will be sent directly to the subject of the background check. For information on how to request this type of check, see Out-of-State Background Check Resource Guide for Child Care Employees and Foster and Adoptive Parents (PDF).

Once the result is received, send the information to CBCU for review by:

• Email: CBCUBackgroundChecks@dfps.state.tx.us
• Fax: 512-339-5871, or
• Contacting your CBCU representative directly.

If a person has lived outside of Texas any time during the previous five years, an Out-of-State Criminal History check may be required. A notice about the requirement of this check type will be sent directly to the subject of the background check. For information on how to request this type of check, see Out-of-State Background Check Resource Guide for Child Care Employees and Foster and Adoptive Parents (PDF).

Once the result is received, send the information to CBCU for review by:

• Email: CBCUBackgroundChecks@dfps.state.tx.us
• Fax: 512-339-5871, or
• Contacting your CBCU representative directly.

Yes, if a background check is run for a minor and the minor does not have an email address, the parent's or legal guardian's email address can be used.