Caregiver Accounts

Agencies dealing with children, the elderly or disabled clientele may qualify for reduced fees for record checks. In order to submit record check requests by name or by fingerprint card as a caregiver agency, agencies must have established an account with the KBI.

  What criminal history record information is released

An agency with a caregiver account may obtain the following types of adult conviction criminal history information:

• Court convictions for violations of Kansas law that are felonies or class A or class B misdemeanors. Class C misdemeanor assaults are also part of the database.
   
• Court convictions for violations of municipal ordinances or county resolutions that are equivalent to class A or class B misdemeanors or class C misdemeanor assaults under state statute.
   
• Confinements in Kansas Department of Corrections facilities.
   
• Records of arrests within the past 12 months are also released when the records of disposition have not yet been received.
   
• Active diversions that have not yet been successfully completed.

  What criminal history record information IS NOT released

Caregiver agencies usually are not permitted to receive the following types of criminal history record information from the Central Repository:

• Arrests that have been disposed and that did not result in a court conviction. (For example, the prosecutor declined to file or the subject was found "not guilty" by the court.)
   
• Successfully completed diversions.
   
• Expunged arrests, prosecutions, convictions and confinements.
   
• Records of arrests that occurred 12 months ago or longer, when the records of disposition have not yet been received.
   
• Juvenile offender records.

  Qualifying as a caregiver agency

An agency may apply to the KBI for designation as a caregiver for the purposes of conducting Kansas criminal history record checks at reduced rates. To be approved, an agency must meet the following conditions:

• The agency is a business, social service or charitable enterprise and is not a single individual. The agency may be a for-profit or a non-profit organization.
  
  
• The agency’s primary purpose is to provide direct care to children, the elderly or disabled.
  
  
• The persons to be subjected to record checks are current or prospective employees of, or volunteers for the agency.

Child daycare facilities qualify for caregiver status, as do nursing homes, religious youth programs, elementary schools, high schools, summer camps, training facilities for disabled workers, elder transportation providers and similar organizations.

However, a temporary employment service would not qualify unless the service’s placements were exclusively for jobs caring for children, the elderly or the disabled. Similarly, hospitals and medical practices do not automatically qualify as caregivers; the primary function of the hospital or practice must be focused on children, the elderly or the disabled.

An agency that has some caregiver activities, but is not exclusively providing such care, may request two caregiver accounts; one for caregiver record checks and the other for checks that don’t qualify as caregiver. This requires that an element of the agency is qualified to be considered a caregiver by meeting the three conditions listed above. A company that runs a daycare for employees’ children would be an appropriate example; while the company is not a caregiver organization, its daycare facility is.

  Information Network Kansas (INK) Subscriber Account

Caregiver agencies will be given a no-fee Information Network of Kansas Subscriber Account and will be permitted to conduct record checks on a billed basis.

  Applying for a caregiver account

• Step 1 Go to the Application for Caregiver Status page and print the application forms.
   
• Step 2 Review the Information Network of Kansas "Terms and Agreement" page.
   
• Step 3 Complete the application forms.  Be sure to have the forms signed by an agency representative who has the appropriate authority.
   
• Step 4 Mail the application to the KBI.

The KBI will determine whether or not the requesting agency should be given caregiver status. After the KBI has made that decision, the application will be forwarded to Information Network Kansas (INK) for processing of the Information Network of Kansas Subscriber Account application. Information Network of Kansas will return the completed action to the requestor. The application process takes about three weeks in total.

  Identifying the subject of the record check

There are two ways to conduct a record check; by name or by fingerprints.

• Name-Based Record Checks. These checks can be done on this web site. The fees for caregiver record checks are $12.50 per name check. This is a discount from the normal fee for name-based checks. For a name-based record check, you must know the subject’s first and last names and date of birth. If you also know the subject’s social security account number (SSAN), middle name, alias names, height, weight, race, place of birth, residence and occupation, these additional items of information may be helpful in locating the record or determining that the subject has no record.
  
  
• Fingerprint-Based Record Checks. Caregiver agencies may receive fingerprint-based record checks for a fee of $19.75. Fingerprint identification is the preferred method of searching the Central Repository. The criminal history records in the Central Repository are tied to the fingerprints taken at the time of the subject’s arrest and submitted by the arresting agency. If you can obtain a set of fingerprints from the person whose record you are searching, then those fingerprints will be searched against the Central Repository fingerprint database. The accuracy of such a search is almost 100%.

Caregivers may submit fingerprints either by mail or electronically. Click on Fingerprint Cards for more information.

• Mailed fingerprint cards. The required fingerprint card is the FBI Form FD 258.
   
• Electronic fingerprint submissions. At certain locations throughout the state, police departments, sheriff’s offices or other agencies have "livescan" devices that permit the electronic capture and transmission of fingerprints. Fingerprint records created on these "livescan" devices are automatically sent to the KBI and the corresponding identification response is mailed to the caregiver agency. The submitting agency must have been approved for caregiver status by the KBI to use this service.

  Other types of record checks to consider

• General public. This type of record check is the easiest to conduct. If you don’t qualify for "caregiver" status or don’t want to apply for that status, a general public record check will release the same record for you. For further information, go to the Conducting a Public Record Check page.
   
• Personal review. If you are conducting the record check on yourself. For further information, go to the Reviewing Your Own Criminal History page.
   
• Certified. If you need to have the results of the record check certified by the Central Repository, go to the Certified Record Checks page for further information.
   
• Manual submission. To learn how to conduct a record check without using this web page, go to the page entitled Submitting a Record Check through the Mail.