Persons working at schools and after-school programs these days are given some pretty rigorous background checks. Hell, when I put my name down as a volunteer to be able to chaperone my son’s field trips, they did a background check on me - which I was A-OK with. Also, they’re supervising a group of kids: while it’s always possible to get one off by himself away from the group, it presents an additional barrier, and it’s something I can tell my son to make a shitload of noise if a teacher or leader ever tries to do that.
But this would be the parent doing his/her own vetting of a strange adult who would be one-on-one with the kid, and the vetting would be about his driver’s license and insurance.
Let’s see: her age requirement is 17+, not 70+. She may not get a grandmother.
I’m not sure what good it does to confirm someone’s identity, other than knowing that if you picked a bad apple, you’ve got their real name for the police report. “I’ve seen your driver’s license, and it doesn’t have a scarlet ‘M’ for ‘molester’ so you must be OK.”
That depends ENTIRELY on the school or program. For example, a few years ago I got roped on short notice into being one of the chaperones on a school field trip–showed up at the school, rode the school bus to the museum, got my own little gaggle of second-graders to lead around for a few hours, get 'em back to the bus at a prearranged time and back to school we go. A friend who had a kid in the class got me to volunteer the morning of the trip, and I don’t think anybody official at the school even had a record of my legal name, much less knew anything about me other than that I was “So-and-so’s friend.” This would have been around 2002 or 3, so not the dim distant past when nobody ever thought about such things.
She may not need a grandmother, either. If she meets the person and asks “why are you willing to do this for minimal pay?”, she either gets an answer she can understand or she doesn’t. “I have a kid in this school myself” is an answer that can be understood and verified; “I just like kids and will drive across town to do this” should send some vibes. “Do you have references?” is a perfectly reasonable followup.
Beyond that, it’s not clear what she could do to vet anybody more thoroughly anyway. Most people convicted of sex crimes against children (75-85%, depending on study) have no previous record and would pass a background check; the sex offender registry is public information and can be checked if you have a name.
A verified identity lets you do a check of local court records, the sex offender registry, etc. What do you think the school did with your identity when they did their background check? It probably was little or no more than this mother can do with a name, birth date, and driver’s license number.
Watching too much TV will brainwash your mind into thinking EVERYONE out there is a mad killer or whatever.
In reality, MOST people are good people.
With that said, you can run a background check on someone you are about to hire and that would be a good idea. Search google.com for the words Tenant Screening. (Used for rentals, but includes all sorts of background checks.)
I think the perceived danger of this approach is partly from association with Craigslist, and some of the … other things that are advertised thereon.
Suppose there were a Christian version of Craigslist (“Christslist”?) where only wholesome, pastor-approved goods and services could be solicited. I bet a lot more people would feel comfortable advertising for child care services there. Of course it wouldn’t necessarily be any safer in reality.
If I have to come up with all that paperwork, it ain’t worth $15/week.
Why doesn’t the ‘family friend’ that’s going to watch the kid when he’s delivered go and pick him up also? Provided they have a vehicle or public transportation available that is.
I sure don’t think you’re overreacting ! The parent could sign their son up for an
after school activity 3 days a week . It doesn’t say if the son is a special need student and not able to get home on his own. He could ride a bike home if the traffic is not too bad. I guess this mother has not heard of the 'Craigslist killer ’
He was a real live Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde !
The ad gives us no clue why kiddo needs a ride for just 1.5 miles. Lazy spoiled brat? Maybe some kind of disability (not necessarily blatantly obvious like kiddo in wheelchair).
Depending on the neighborhood, letting the kid walk home unsupervised may expose him to more dangers than letting him ride with somebody Mom’s just met.
For example, if you are worried about stranger danger, there are 27 registered sex offenders (and more registered for violence or drugs) within a mile and a half of my home, and that’s not counting the ones who haven’t been caught. Quiet residential streets where not many are home during the day, multiple wooded areas, secluded parks … --if somebody is out preying on kids, giving your driver’s license to mama isn’t the easiest way to go about it.
Some schools will not allow a child to walk home.
When my daughter was in the 3rd grade, I would volunteer at the snack shack. I had to close the shack to go pick her up at her classroom. They wouldn’t allow kids under the fifth grade to walk anywhere on campus alone… And this campus was completely fenced in.
Yikes. That makes the registry effectively useless. If it went by risk factors and actually only covered the truly high risk criminals, you could watch the 1 guy or whoever who actually likes to catch little kids and rape em in his van. The other 26 probably just passively watched underage porn, had sex with a woman finished with puberty who happened to be under the age of 18, peed on a wall in public when drunk, etc etc etc.
The problem is the fat guy who watches underage porn as well as the regular stuff might get off his ass and buy that shady panel van and drive around on a kidnap/rape spree. He probably won’t, he’s too lazy, but it might happen. And the State would then look bad if the guy molested a kid and wasn’t on the List despite being convicted of a sex related crime. So the State sticks everyone on the list, real danger or not. Which makes the list worthless.
Also, not all 1.5 mile walks are the same. I live about that far from the school that 5th graders in my community attend, but I wouldn’t be comfortable with sending anybody (adult or child) to walk down the shoulder of a busy highway with dozens of busy retail driveways in an area where drivers are simply not accustomed to looking for pedestrians.
If this is in the US and a public school, I would expect busing to be provided by the school.
And in the private schools that my friends use, there always seems to be organized carpooling.
If it were a weird case like a student going to a school he/she was not zoned for, I would expect more than a one mile commute.
Are there school districts in the US where busing or some form of transportation is not provided? I have never lived anywhere where it wasn’t.
FWIW, we found our nanny through Care.com. The website has already done the background checking for the applicants. Going through a site like that (or SitterCity, etc.) would at least help weed out the worst of the applicant pool.
In Topeka Public Schools (Kansas), free busing is provided by the school district only if the child lives at least 1.5 miles from the school (or qualifies for an IEP [i.e., has disabilities of some variety] that specifies busing). For several years, the limit was 2.5 miles; the limit has gone up and down as school funding waxes and wanes and the membership of the school board changes.
Districts in my state (Ohio) are only required to bus K-8 students who live more than two miles from school. Anyone older than that or closer than that has no legal right to busing (I think except handicapped children), although most districts do more than that.
One district I know of is so small, though, that it has no busing for public school students at all. It has a few buses for private K-8 students who live within a certain radius of home (they’re entitled to public busing here), special events, and handicapped students, but not for anything else.
Honestly, the only thing that strikes me as odd about this ad is the pay. I’m planning to look on care.com or sittercity or something shortly to find after school care for my kids.
I know a few families in MD whose kids attend public schools other than the one they’re zoned for. Most instances are for language immersion programs or magnet programs. My understanding is that there are bus routes, but typically the parents have to take the kids the first couple of miles to meet the bus. In DC, a ton of people send their kids to charter schools. Those are public schools, but parents are responsible for transportation to and from (as far as I can tell). My kid rides the bus to and from school relatively happily, but there have been some incidents on the bus that have led to a few people making other transportation arrangements. Bottom line - there are plenty of reasons a family might be looking for a ride for their kid.
But the pay is everything, for one side of the evaluation. People hire people to do all kinds of things, and put all kinds of stipulations on the deal. This doesn’t scratch the surface, as far as what people have been asked to do and go through for work. That the would-be employer here is so ridiculously under-market, for what is being asked, is all the indictment needed.