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New law tightens background checks for child-care providers
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A new law designed to better protect Georgia’s children who are in day-care centers went into effect New Year’s Day.
Beginning this year, people employed by any of the state’s 6,000 child-care facilities will be required to undergo national fingerprint-based background checks — a departure from conducting a simple name search of Georgia records, according to  the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning.
“The key change with this law is that previously only child-care center directors were required to have the national checks,” said Reg Griffin, chief communications officer of Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL). “Other employees were only required to have Georgia criminal-background checks, which risked us missing felonies they may have had in other states. The national checks give us criminal charges and convictions as reported by each state and the federal government.”
The cost for the new, stricter background check is $52.75, which is set by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Griffin said. Comparatively, the cost from the Hinesville Police Department is $20, and fingerprinting — with an individual bringing in their own card — is $15, according to the HPD.
The mandated check and fingerprinting must be paid for by the child-care facility or those applying for child-care-provider positions, according to Griffin.
Child-care workers hired before Jan. 1 will have until 2017 to meet the mandate, unless they move to a new facility where the new law will be applied, he said.
“We expect around 20,000 of the 60,000 child-care employees in Georgia to have background checks in the first year,” DECAL Commissioner Bobby Cagle said. “With a 30 percent turnover rate in the child-care industry each year, we anticipate having everyone checked by 2017.”
“I believe this new rule for child-care centers is a positive step,” said Beverly Rush, director of Westwood Day Care Center Inc. in Hinesville. “However, like anything new, we have to have an open mind, and it will be a process to learn and get used to. In the long run, it will benefit all involved, and it will help us to run safer centers.”
“I think it’s going to be a great thing,” said Jennifer Brantley, director of Hinesville Childcare Learning Center. “The fingerprinting will give a more in-depth check. My concern would be the cost for new employees.”
Brantley said her center has not recently hired any new staff and has about 18 months to complete the national background check and fingerprinting requirement with existing staff.
She said the center’s administrators have not yet discussed how they will take on the expense of the more-stringent background check.
“It is a lot for a new employee to pay out up front if they’re not employed,” Brantley said. “We may pay for it up front and have them reimburse it … or have them sign a contract and if they are terminated in 90 days, they’ll reimburse us or something of that nature.”
The approved vendor for the national fingerprint background checks is Cogent Systems, which has application sites across Georgia, according to Griffin. A local Cogent site is at the UPS store in Liberty Square Shopping Center on Gen. Screven Way in Hinesville, according to ga.cogentid.com.
Rush said from what she has read about the new law, facilities are allowed to employ a provisional worker in emergency situations, such as when a facility is short-staffed and needs to maintain its required provider-to-child ratio.
“Under the statute, child-care programs are allowed to hire a provisional employee who has had a Georgia criminal-record check in the past 10 days,” Griffin confirmed. “They can only work as provisional employees for 21 days. At the end of this time, they must have either been hired by the center with a clear national fingerprint background check or they must leave the center. And this provisional status is only good once per year for each individual, not something that can be used multiple times.”
Griffin said there was no single case of criminal behavior that spurred DECAL to strengthen the background-check law.
“However, in the fall of 2012, DECAL received an anonymous complaint alleging that two staff members working as director/owners of a child-care program in Macon had criminal records in Florida that included multiple felonies for serious theft-related offenses,” he said. “Our investigation confirmed this, yet it never showed up in their Georgia criminal-record checks. The Macon case gave us a current, tangible case illustrating the need (for national background checks).”

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Record April boosts Savannah's container trade at port
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The Port of Savannah moved 356,700 20-foot equivalent container units in April, an increase of 7.1 percent. - photo by Provided

The Georgia Ports Authority's busiest April ever pushed its fiscal year-to-date totals to more than 3.4 million 20-foot equivalent container units (TEUs), an increase of 8.8 percent, or 280,000 TEUs, compared to the first 10 months of fiscal 2017.

"We're on track to move more than 300,000 TEUs in every month of the fiscal year, which will be a first for the authority," said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch. "We're also anticipating this to be the first fiscal year for the Port of Savannah to handle more than 4 million TEUs."

April volumes reached 356,700 20-foot equivalent container units, up 7.1 percent or 23,700 units. As the fastest growing containerport in the nation, the Port of Savannah has achieved a compound annual growth rate of more than 5 percent a year over the past decade.

"As reported in the recent economic impact study by UGA's Terry College of Business, trade through Georgia's deepwater ports translates into jobs, higher incomes and greater productivity," said GPA Board Chairman Jimmy Allgood. "In every region of Georgia, employers rely on the ports of Savannah and Brunswick to help them become more competitive on the global stage."

To strengthen the Port of Savannah's ability to support the state's future economic growth, the GPA Board approved $66 million in terminal upgrades, including $24 million for the purchase of 10 additional rubber-tired gantry cranes.  

"The authority is committed to building additional capacity ahead of demand to ensure the Port of Savannah remains a trusted link in the supply chain serving Georgia and the Southeast," Lynch said.

The crane purchase will bring the fleet at Garden City Terminal to 156 RTGs. The new cranes will support three new container rows, which the board approved in March. The additional container rows will increase annual capacity at the Port of Savannah by 150,000 TEUs.

The RTGs will work over stacks that are five containers high and six deep, with a truck lane running alongside the stacks. Capable of running on electricity, the cranes will have a lift capacity of 50 metric tons.

The cranes will arrive in two batches of five in the first and second quarters of calendar year 2019.

 Also at Monday's meeting, the GPA Board elected its officers, with Jimmy Allgood as chairman, Will McKnight taking the position of vice chairman and Joel Wooten elected as the next secretary/treasurer.

For more information, visit gaports.com, or contact GPA Senior Director of Corporate Communications Robert Morris at (912) 964-3855 or rmorris@gaports.com.

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