What Louisville Directors Need to Know About KARES

If you have hired child care staff in Kentucky, you know KARES, the Kentucky Applicant Registry and Employment Screening system.

What fewer directors know is how it handles substitutes who work across multiple centers.

Worth understanding whether or not you ever use a staffing platform.

What KARES actually does

KARES is the state's portal for pre-employment screening, supporting the Kentucky National Background Check Program. Through it, an approved provider runs abuse registry checks and submits applicants for fingerprint-based criminal background checks through the Kentucky State Police and the FBI.

Two features matter more than most directors realize.

Registry rechecking happens automatically. For staff marked as hired, KARES rechecks certain registries and surfaces findings that appear after the hire date.

Continuous assessment runs in the background. Previously called rap back. If someone active in the system is arrested after being hired, the employer is notified. Screening is not a one-time snapshot taken the week someone starts.

For a director, that second one is the quiet reassurance. The clearance in your file is not just a statement about the day it was issued.

How this works for substitutes

Kentucky's regulations recognize a contract substitute staff member, meaning someone who temporarily assumes the duties of a regular staff person, is employed by an outside agency, and is paid by that agency rather than by your center. The requirements for that role are spelled out in 922 KAR 2:090.

Tandem is approved in the state system as Tandem Sub Pool, a recognized provider with direct access to the KARES portal. In practice that means:

• Tandem submits the background check application for the worker.
• The worker schedules fingerprinting through the state's enrollment platform if new prints are needed, at no cost to them.
• Tandem receives the determination in the portal and marks the worker as hired under Tandem Sub Pool.
• Because the clearance sits with that employment relationship, a center booking that substitute does not submit its own application.

The practical effect is that you are not starting a new background check for every placement, and you are not waiting on one before you can fill a classroom.

What this does not cover

A cleared background check is not the whole compliance picture, and assuming otherwise is how a program ends up out of compliance without realizing it.

The substitute is your responsibility on site. Kentucky's rules are explicit that a contract substitute working in your center is the center's responsibility while they are there. Some of that is regulatory and some of it is just good practice, which we covered in How to Successfully Bring a Substitute Into Your Center.

You still need the file on site. A contract substitute has to provide a hard copy file of all required staff records, kept at your center and retained for five years.

First aid and CPR certification is a separate obligation. Kentucky requires at least one person on duty and present with the children to be currently certified in infant and child CPR and first aid. A substitute who has completed orientation training, which covers non-certified first aid and CPR, does not satisfy that requirement on its own. If you need a certified substitute, you can require it on the job post and we will only match teachers who have it.

How Tandem handles it

Every Kentucky substitute in our pool clears KARES and completes orientation training before their first shift. When you book, you can download their full file and print it for your on-site records.

That is the short version of what we do. The longer version is that we built the compliance side of this before we opened in Kentucky, because a substitute who cannot legally be in your classroom is not a substitute.

Get started

Centers in Louisville: Create a free profile at join-tandem.com and see what a complete substitute file looks like before you ever book one.

Teachers in Louisville: Download the Tandem app. We submit your background check through KARES and walk you through every step, including fingerprinting if you need it.

🧸 Crib Notes

• KARES is Kentucky's pre-employment screening portal. An approved provider runs abuse registry checks and submits applicants for fingerprint-based checks through the Kentucky State Police and the FBI.
• Screening does not stop at hire. KARES rechecks registries automatically and runs continuous assessment, so an employer is notified if an active worker is arrested after being hired.
• Kentucky recognizes a contract substitute staff member: employed and paid by an outside agency rather than by your center.
• Tandem is approved in the state system as Tandem Sub Pool, so the clearance sits with us. You are not starting a new background check or waiting on a determination to fill a classroom.
• A cleared background check is not the whole picture. The substitute is your responsibility on site, their hard copy file has to live at your center for five years, and orientation training does not satisfy the certified CPR and first aid requirement.
• If a shift needs a certified substitute, require it on the job post and we will only match teachers who hold it.