Background Check

The one-sentence answer

Anyone who provides direct personal care to a Self-Determination Program participant must be fingerprinted and cleared before they start working — with one exception, for a family member who lives in the participant's home.

What this means for you

"Before they start working" is the part that matters. Clearance is not paperwork that catches up later. Someone who begins a shift without it has done work that may not be payable from your budget, which is how a person ends up having worked for free.

Being a relative does not exempt anyone. DDS applies the requirement "including family members who provide direct personal care services." There is exactly one carve-out:

"This does not include family members who live in the same home as the participant and are paid to provide direct personal care services."

So the line is the household, not the relationship. A sibling across town needs a clearance; a sibling under the same roof does not.

What DDS sets is a floor, not a ceiling. The rules above are the minimum every FMS in California must meet, and none of them may go below it. Above it, providers differ.

Your FMS may require a check where DDS does not. A provider may ask for clearance in a case DDS exempts, including one covered by the same-home carve-out. That is allowed, and it is usually about the risk the provider is carrying rather than doubt about the person.
You can ask for one yourself. A participant or family can request that someone be checked even when no rule compels it. You do not need a reason and you do not need to justify it. If you would feel better knowing, ask.

So "is a check required?" and "will there be a check?" are different questions, and the answer to the second depends on which provider you are with. It is worth asking before someone is hired rather than after — see when you are told two different things, which is about exactly this kind of difference between providers.

Confirm your own case with your FMS before anyone starts. They work these out weekly and will tell you what is needed for the person in front of you.

How it works

The provider completes a Live Scan form and a DMV release, then gets fingerprinted at a certified Live Scan location. Your FMS can tell them where to go and what it costs.
The Department of Justice and the FBI process the fingerprints and send the report to the DDS Office of Protective Services.
OPS reviews the report and the applicant's DMV record.
If everything is clear, OPS issues a clearance letter to the FMS provider — and the applicant can start.

How long it takes: anywhere from 1 to 90 days. That range is DDS's own, and it is wide enough to matter. Start the process well before you want someone to begin, not the week of.

The provider pays for their own Live Scan. Worth saying plainly when you make an offer, so it is not a surprise.

One clearance covers several participants. Someone already cleared and working for another SDP family does not start again.

If something shows up

A conviction does not automatically end it. The applicant can request an exemption, which DDS must approve before they can work.

Some convictions cannot be exempted at all — among them rape, murder, robbery, willful harm to a child or elder, and certain assault convictions. For the full list of disqualifying convictions, contact DDS.

Clearance is not a one-time snapshot. Both the DOJ and the FBI report subsequent arrests of already-cleared people back to the Office of Protective Services.

For the detail-oriented

Statutory basis: WIC 4685.8(v). DDS's page is at https://www.dds.ca.gov/initiatives/sdp/background-checks/.

The background checks page does not mention the same-home exemption — that language is in the SDP Frequently Asked Questions. Reading either page alone gives you half the rule, which is a trap this project fell into and had to be corrected on. If you are checking this yourself, read both.

Employees of regional center vendors are treated differently. They are generally not required to obtain a Department criminal background check unless their own vendor requires one — because they are the vendor's employees, not yours.

This entry describes the requirement as DDS publishes it. Your FMS makes the call on your specific arrangement.