State considers federal background checks for daycare workers

A federal report is recommending that child care centers conduct federal background checks on their workers. A licensing consultant with the Iowa Department of Human Services says Iowa does do state background checks on child care employees. But, Don Hurla admits those checks won’t catch everything.Hurla says federal checks are something that have been discussed by the state.Hurla says conducting federal background checks would require a lot of time and money. Hurla says the department would need a larger staff to properly address the needs of day care centers.Hurla oversees a region that covers around 550 daycare centers in 26 Iowa counties in the eastern portion of the state.