Which Background Checks Are Needed for Tutors?

 Are you thinking about hiring a tutor for your child? Because of coronavirus, interest is on the upswing for tutors, Zutors (Zoom tutors), and “instructors-for-hire.” As more parents consider homeschooling or eLearning over traditional face-to-face school—and K-12 schools across the country struggle to execute safe reopening protocols—tutors and other third-party educational aides will see a significant uptick in demand.

If you are considering a tutor or instructor-for-hire for your children, create a strategy for how you will approach tutor background checks.

Whether you are appointing a tutor to help your child through a specific subject or to handle all their homeschooling, you need to make sure that you are putting your trust in the right person. Teachers go through considerable licensing and background check hurdles before they are allowed in a classroom to teach your kids. In hiring a tutor or instructor to work with your kids, the due diligence of vetting that person’s background may fall on you.

Even if you are hiring someone through an agency, you’ll want to ask which instructor or tutor background checks they run on their personnel. You are hiring someone to work closely with your student—whether online and over Zoom or in your home—and you likely won’t be able to supervise all those appointments. Making sure that the person you appoint has been vetted thoroughly and is well-qualified is a must to protect your child.

What should your tutor background checks encompass? In some cases, a tutor will be an older student who knows a subject well and can help your child succeed. In other cases, you might be hiring someone to serve as a part-time teacher for your kids. While you might be looking for grades and strong recommendations from teachers for vetting the former person, you will want a certified teacher with strong references and a clean background for the latter.

Your tutor background checks will include criminal history searches, sex offender background checks, verifications of education and work history, Social Security Verifications (to verify identity), and reference checks. Someone with glowing references, an impressive resume that you can verify, and a clean criminal record is probably someone you can trust to work closely with your kids or teens.

Many parents are unsure of how to approach the education of their children. With summer winding down and most schools preparing to resume in-person instruction, it’s worth thinking about how comfortable you feel sending your kids back to crowded school buildings where coronavirus exposure might occur. If you decide on homeschooling or virtual learning instead, then hiring a tutor or instructor-for-hire might be the next step—just don’t forget the background check.

Sources: https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/defenders/2020/08/13/how-to-make-sure-a-tutor-is-safe-to-bring-into-your-home-with-many-michigan-schools-going-virtual/

https://www.privatetutoringathome.com/tutor-background-check/