What Dallas Directors Need to Know About Texas Background Checks for Substitutes

If you have hired staff in Texas, you know the background check routine: submit the request, wait for fingerprints, wait for the determination. What fewer directors know is how the rules handle a substitute who works at a different center every week.

That is worth understanding whether or not you ever use a staffing platform.

How a Texas background check works

Child care background checks in Texas run through Child Care Regulation’s background check system. The operation submits a request with the person’s identifying information, address history, and the role they will fill. From there, one of two things happens.

If the person needs new fingerprints, they get an email with instructions to schedule through the state’s fingerprinting vendor, usually within an hour of the request.

If they already have fingerprints on file, the system can reuse them and starts pulling results right away, though some registry reviews take a few days.

Either way, the result is a determination. It is emailed to the operation and the person, and it also shows in the portal. The determination is what says whether someone can be present at your center.

How this works for substitutes

Texas rules list substitutes among the people a center must run a background check for, with one exception. You do not have to submit your own request if you confirm that the organization providing the substitute:

• Submitted a background check request for that substitute in the last five years, and
• Gave you a copy of the determination that allows the substitute to be present at an operation.

That exception is what makes a substitute pool workable. A substitute covering a different Dallas classroom most weeks would otherwise spend more time waiting on determinations than working.

What this does not cover

A cleared background check covers a lot, but a few pieces stay with your center no matter who provides the substitute.

The file lives with you. Texas’s personnel record rules apply to substitutes as well as employees, so their file needs to be at your center and available during hours of operation.

Your policies, your sign-off. Texas requires a signed statement that each person received your operational and personnel policies, plus a record of orientation on your child maltreatment policy. Since those are your policies, they are yours to complete, usually in a few minutes before a new substitute’s first shift.

Ratio works the same way it does for your staff. A substitute counted in ratio meets the same caregiver standards as your own team.

How Tandem handles it

Tandem has state-approved access to submit background checks through Child Care Regulation, and we submit one for every Texas substitute in our pool. We cover the cost of new fingerprints, and the Eligible determination letter is in the substitute’s file, so you have your copy before their first shift. You do not need to run the substitute through the portal yourself.

Get started

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

Teachers in Dallas: Download the Tandem app. We submit your background check and cover the cost of fingerprinting if you need it.

🧸 Crib Notes

• Texas background checks run through Child Care Regulation and end in a determination that says whether someone can be present at your center.
• You do not need to submit your own check for a substitute if the organization providing them submitted one in the last five years and you have a copy of the determination.
• Tandem submits every check, covers fingerprinting costs, and includes the determination in the substitute’s file.
• Your center still keeps the file on site and completes its own policy acknowledgment and orientation.