Background checks for Maine home day care

You, your staff, and every adult in the house

The check covers more than the applicant. Every child care provider must request a comprehensive background check for themselves, all current and prospective staff members, all household members in a family child care home over the age of eighteen, and anyone whose activities involve the care or supervision of children or unsupervised access to them.

The household rule is the one that surprises families. An adult child living at home, a partner who never enrolls a child, a grandparent in the spare room. All of them are household members over eighteen in a family child care, and all of them are checked.

One exception exists for the fingerprinting itself. Where an adult in the home cannot be fingerprinted for medical reasons, the department may run name-based state and federal checks instead, with a statement from the individual's medical provider.

household members over 18Maine's background check rule requires a comprehensive check for the provider, all staff members, all household members over 18, and anyone with unsupervised access to children in care. — Maine DHHS, 10-148 CMR Ch. 34, retrieved 2026-09-29

What gets searched, fingerprints included

The check is comprehensive by rule, not by label. It includes an FBI fingerprint check using Next Generation Identification and the National Crime Information Center's National Sex Offender Registry.

In the state where the individual lives, it runs the state child abuse and neglect registry, the state Bureau of Identification's crime repository with fingerprints, and the state sex offender registry.

And it reaches back: in each state where the individual has lived at any time in the previous five years, the child abuse and neglect registry, the crime repository, and the sex offender registry are checked again. The state police take the fingerprints and forward them to the Bureau of Identification.

Maine's comprehensive background check includes an FBI fingerprint check using Next Generation Identification and the National Crime Information Center National Sex Offender Registry. — Maine DHHS, 10-148 CMR Ch. 34, retrieved 2026-09-29

previous five yearsMaine's background check includes the registries of each state where the individual has resided at any time during the previous five years. — Maine DHHS, 10-148 CMR Ch. 34, retrieved 2026-09-29

The department pays for it

The checks cost the applicant nothing. The statute is explicit: fees for the criminal background checks required of providers and staff are paid by the department from funds available under the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant Act.

The statute also caps the reimbursed fees — they may not exceed the actual costs for processing and administration. The department is not writing a blank check, and you are not writing any check at all.

So the background check line in your budget is time, not money. Book the fingerprint appointments early in the application — the licensing guide puts the starred items first for exactly this reason.

Fees for the required criminal background checks are paid by the department from federal Child Care and Development Block Grant funds, capped at actual processing and administration costs. — Maine Legislature, 22 M.R.S. §8302-A, retrieved 2026-09-29

The Letter of Eligibility, and the five-year clock

The results come back as a Letter of Eligibility, which your licensing specialist reviews with you. The pre-licensing checklist treats that review as a priority item.

The checks run on their own calendar: at least once every five years for each individual who requires one. The license renews every two years, so some renewals pass without a new check and some do not.

A new hire can sometimes skip a fresh check. An individual with a qualifying background check completed within the last five years, who is or was employed as a staff member within the past 180 days, does not need a new one when moving to a different provider. Track the date on each Letter of Eligibility — the renewal guide shows where the five-year clock meets the sixty-day deadline.

every five yearsMaine's background check rule requires checks to be requested at least once every five years for each individual requiring one. — Maine DHHS, 10-148 CMR Ch. 34, retrieved 2026-09-29

within 180 daysMaine's rule states an individual with a qualifying check from the last five years, employed as a staff member within the past 180 days, need not request a new one when changing providers. — Maine DHHS, 10-148 CMR Ch. 34, retrieved 2026-09-29

Who is not checked, and who must not be alone

Not everyone who walks through the door needs a check. Individuals who are not subject to comprehensive background checks. A parent picking up, a delivery driver, a repair contractor — may only have supervised access to the children served.

The rule's test is frequency and supervision: individuals with only infrequent and irregular supervised access are not checked. Anyone with regular unsupervised access is.

That line matters for babysitters, cleaners and the neighbor who covers lunch. If their access to the children is regular and unsupervised, they belong in the checked column. And if their access is not, the supervision rule is what keeps the license whole.

Maine's rule states individuals not subject to comprehensive checks may only have supervised access to the children served, and names infrequent, irregular supervised access as not requiring checks. — Maine DHHS, 10-148 CMR Ch. 34, retrieved 2026-09-29

Disclose everything on the application

The application asks for your legal history, and the checklist is direct about what is at stake. Be sure to include any legal history that may be revealed from background checks — inaccurate reporting may result in immediate denial of the application.

The check will find what the application omitted, because finding it is what the check is for. An omission converts a reviewable record into an honesty problem.

The department applies a published matrix of disqualifying convictions and an appeal process, so a record is not automatically the end — an inaccurate application is. Start there, and move on to the exemption line or the cost picture in the licensing guide.

Maine's pre-licensing checklist instructs applicants to include any legal history that background checks may reveal, stating inaccurate reporting may result in immediate denial. — Maine DHHS, Children's Licensing and Investigation Services, retrieved 2026-09-29

Questions