Criminal background screening for employees who work with children
Effective date: September 4, 2026
Italian school of San Diego LLC provides Italian-language instruction to children and adults. This page explains the criminal-background-screening policy used for employees who teach or supervise children and provides the parent/guardian notice described in California Business and Professions Code section 18950 when that statute applies.
For ordinary children’s classes enrolled and paid for privately, the School currently uses the SentryLink National Criminal Background Check as its standard employment criminal-background report.
The School uses the report to identify reported criminal convictions and offense information that may be relevant to child-facing duties, including reported felonies, misdemeanors, and sex offenses, subject to the limits and procedures required by applicable California and federal employment law.
According to SentryLink’s current product description, the National Criminal Background Check:
A national database search is not the same thing as an official fingerprint-based criminal-history record, and database coverage varies by jurisdiction.
State criminal history: The standard National Criminal Background Check can return criminal records originating from state and local jurisdictions when those records are available through SentryLink’s nationwide database. However, our standard report is not the employee’s official California Department of Justice criminal-history record and is not SentryLink’s separate dedicated State Criminal Background Check.
Federal criminal history: The standard report includes federal government exclusion and watchlist searches, but it does not include SentryLink’s separate nationwide Federal Criminal Background Check of the federal court system. It also does not obtain an FBI fingerprint-based criminal-history record.
For ordinary privately enrolled classes, therefore, the School’s standard SentryLink screening is not California DOJ/FBI Live Scan.
A different clearance process can apply when an instructor provides services to a child through Pacific Coast Academy, SoCal Scholars Academy, or another school district, county office of education, educational joint powers authority, or charter school.
For those assignments, the School follows the current criminal-record clearance requirements of the educational agency and applicable California law. This can include California DOJ and FBI fingerprinting when required for the assignment. The ordinary SentryLink policy does not replace an educational agency’s required fingerprint clearance.
Background information is evaluated only for lawful employment purposes. When California or federal law requires disclosure, authorization, individualized assessment, an opportunity to respond, or other Fair Chance or consumer-report procedures, the School follows those requirements.
This page describes our screening policy. It does not disclose any employee’s confidential criminal-history information.
Questions about this policy may be sent to info@italianschoolsd.com.