What a Thorough Background Check Actually Includes

The difference between a real screening and a cursory one, laid out plainly.

"We run a background check" can mean almost anything, from a single database query to a genuinely exhaustive investigation. For someone who will work in your home, the difference matters enormously, so it is worth knowing exactly what a thorough check contains.

Criminal screening should be the core, and it should be more than one search. A real check includes a multi-jurisdictional national criminal search, which draws on a broad database of court, incarceration, and related records and includes sex-offender registry and watchlist screening; a federal criminal search across the country's district courts, where serious federal offenses appear that local records do not capture; and county-level criminal searches in every county where the candidate has lived. Each layer exists because each catches what the others miss; a national database alone, for instance, will not surface many federal cases.

A driving record check belongs in any thorough screening, particularly for a role that involves transporting children. It reveals suspensions, violations, and alcohol-related offenses that bear directly on whether someone should be behind the wheel with your family.

Identity and history verification matters as much as the criminal record. A proper check verifies the candidate's identity and traces prior names and addresses, then confirms their actual work history rather than taking the résumé on faith. Employment dates and roles are verified, and education and degrees can be confirmed where they are relevant to the position.

References are where a screening becomes a portrait. Beyond confirming employment, thorough reference checks ask former employers about punctuality, reliability, and quality of work, and ask personal references about character, the things a database cannot show. A résumé tells you what someone did; references tell you who they are.

Drug testing is available and appropriate for many roles, conducted through established laboratories.

The honest test of a background check is whether the agency can describe all of this specifically, and whether it shares the completed report with you. A firm that can detail each layer, and hand you the results, is doing the real thing. One that speaks only in the general language of "background checks" likely is not. In a placement built on trust, the depth of the check is not a formality; it is the substance. It is what families come to Nannies + more…® for.