What Kentucky Licensing Wants in Your Staff Files

Kentucky's regulations account for substitutes who work for an outside agency.

That means staff file requirements here cover two groups: your own employees, and the substitutes who work in your building.

Here is what the state asks for in each case.

The personnel file

Section 9 of 922 KAR 2:090 requires a current personnel file for each staff person containing:

• Name, address, date of birth, and date of employment
• Proof of educational qualifications
• Record of annual performance evaluation
• Documentation of tuberculosis screening
• Results of background checks

Five items. As the licensee, you are also responsible for making sure none of your mandatory records have been altered or falsified.

The requirements those documents prove

Education. Staff hired after January 1, 2009 who have supervisory power over a minor and are not enrolled in secondary education need a high school diploma, a GED or comparable documentation, or the Commonwealth Child Care Credential.

Tuberculosis. Before employment and every two years after, either a health professional's statement that the individual is free of active tuberculosis or a copy of negative tuberculin results.

Background checks. Conducted under 922 KAR 2:280, through the state's KARES portal. How this works when the substitute is employed by an outside agency is its own subject.

Training. Six hours of cabinet-approved orientation within the first 90 days of employment. Nine hours in the first year, including an hour and a half of pediatric abusive head trauma training. 

Training compliance is verified through ECE-TRIS, the state's designated training database, so a certificate in a folder is not the same as a training record that counts.

Substitutes have their own rules

A qualified substitute who works in more than one licensed center has to provide the required documentation to verify compliance at each center where they work. The documentation does not travel automatically because the person does.

If that substitute is employed by an outside agency and paid by that agency, Kentucky calls them a contract substitute staff member, and two additional requirements apply:

• Entry in ECE-TRIS as a staff member of that agency
• A hard copy file of all required staff records, kept on site at your center and maintained for five years

That last one is worth reading twice. The file lives at your center, in hard copy, for five years, even though the person is employed by someone else.

Our teachers complete Kentucky's orientation before their first shift, they are entered in ECE-TRIS under Tandem, and their complete file is ready in the app the moment you book them, for you to print for your on-site records.

What is in the file

When you book a Tandem substitute, their complete file is available in the app. Kentucky requires that file on site in hard copy, so download it and print a copy for your records before their first shift.

• Final Registry Results
• Employment Authorization Form
• Signed DCC 500 and DCC 501
• A negative TB test from within two years, or a clinician-signed risk assessment
• High school diploma, transcript, GED, or Commonwealth Child Care Credential
• Photo ID
• ECE-TRIS training record showing Kentucky orientation

One note. The annual performance evaluation in the personnel file list is a record you create, not one we can supply, and it applies to your own staff rather than to a contract substitute.

Paperwork is the floor, not the welcome. What happens after the file is printed is covered in How to Successfully Bring a Substitute Into Your Center.

Get started

Centers in Louisville: Create a free profile at join-tandem.com. Every substitute you book comes with a downloadable file built for Kentucky's requirements.

Teachers in Louisville: Download the Tandem app. You complete your Kentucky compliance steps, and we send your file to every center you work at.

🧸 Crib Notes

• Section 9 of 922 KAR 2:090 requires five items in every personnel file: identifying information, proof of education, annual performance evaluation, TB screening, and background check results.
• Training runs six hours of orientation in the first 90 days and nine hours in the first year.
• Training only counts if it is in ECE-TRIS. A certificate in a folder is not a training record.
• A substitute working in multiple centers has to verify compliance at each one. Documentation does not travel automatically because the person does. Tandem helps with this process.
• A contract substitute adds two requirements: ECE-TRIS entry under the agency, and a hard copy file kept at your center for five years even though you do not employ them.

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