Bills over child care provider background checks draw ire from Virginia religious groups

When asked who her older sister is, 3-year-old Caliann Lafkin looks up and says, "Cami."

"And where does Cami live?" asks Caliann's mother, Elly Lafkin.

"God," Caliann says.

"That's right," her mother encourages. "Cami lives with God."

In 2012, Elly and Cameron Lafkin of Harrisonburg trusted their 3-month-old daughter, Camden, with a child care provider recommended by friends and on whom they did a public knowledge background check based on the provider's name. The check did not turn up any suspicious results.

Then, after four weeks with the care provider, Cami was found unresponsive and rushed to an emergency room. After CPR efforts failed to revive her, she was pronounced dead.

"After Camden died, the police arrested [the provider] and fingerprinted her, and that's unfortunately how we found out she had five alias names and she was on felony probation under one of the alias names," Elly Lafkin said.

Since Cami's death, the Lafkins have been pushing Virginia to expand the background check requirements for child care providers.

A measure known as Cami's Law, passed in 2015, required all licensed providers in the state to get fingerprint background checks to prevent other providers from hiding behind aliases.

The Lafkins are aiming to push those requirements even further this year. Similar bills in the House and Senate would require all providers - even those operating under a religious exemption - to undergo fingerprint background checks.

Some religiously exempt day care centers have voiced strong opposition to the bill, claiming it represents government overreach and unfairly targets ministry facilities. Currently, those facilities self-report to the Virginia Department of Social Services that their providers undergo name-based background checks.

"It feels like the Department of Social Services just wants to have authority over us," said Pastor John Godfrey of Immanuel Baptist Church in Clifton Forge, which runs a day care center.

"We are not the problem. In fact, we believe that we are the safest option."

Each bill has passed its branch of the General Assembly. One is sponsored by Sen. Jennifer Wexton, D-Leesburg, and the other by Del. Bobby Orrock, R-Caroline.

The issue has become more urgent, as the federal government is threatening states with financial penalties.

If Virginia does not change its rules by October to require that all child care providers undergo fingerprint background checks, the state will risk losing some or all of the $117 million it receives through the Child Care and Development Fund.

Those federal funds fuel Virginia's Child Care Subsidy program, which in 2016 contributed toward the care of nearly 38,800 children and allowed their parents to go to work or receive job training, according to the Department of Social Services.

Virginia would be penalized at least 5 percent - or nearly $6 million - of the $117 million it receives. Or the U.S. secretary of health and human services could decide the penalty and potentially disqualify Virginia from receiving any funding.

"The federal government is figuratively holding a dollar gun to our heads," Orrock said during a recent House Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee meeting.

But even with that money at stake, some who support religiously exempt day care facilities remain fiercely opposed to the bills.

The overarching fear is that expanding background check requirements could lead to the government controlling everything about ministry day care centers or even removing the religious exemption option .

Orrock was among those who have raised reservations about the bill.

"Religious day care [centers] feel this is an overreach, and I must say I concur," Orrock said.

Orrock included a sunset clause in his bill that would end Virginia's fingerprint background check requirements should the federal government change its regulations.

He said he ultimately supports the bill because if Virginia does not change its policies, it risks losing money for low-income families.

Others, though, feel differently. When Del. Peter Farrell, R-Henrico, asked one of the opponents of Orrock's bill if he would rather have the state give up the federal money than risk contributing to government overreach, the answer was yes.

Some religiously exempt day care centers accept federal subsidies, though Godfrey emphasized his ministry does not.

"Our church day care doesn't get the money, so they preach this mantra about safety - it's not," he said.

According to the Department of Social Services, in 2016 Virginia's 275 religiously exempt day cares received just over $5 million in federal funds and more than $1.7 million in state money.

The issue, said Dan Zacharias, executive director of the Old Dominion Association of Church Schools, is philosophical. By placing further regulations on child day care centers that operate under religious exemptions, the government is breaching the fundamental idea of the separation of church and state.

"We view this through a religious liberty lens," Zacharias said. "For the state to license any ministry of a church, in our perspective, is a violation of the separation of church and state and can lead to other kinds of controls beyond just safety controls."

He said he believes the federal rules have been misinterpreted to impose further regulations on religiously exempt day care centers.

It's not that he wants Virginia to refuse federal funds for low-income families, he said. He wants Virginia lawmakers to band together to challenge the federal regulation and protect religiously exempt institutions.

"Those who want to take the money, that's their business," he said. "I'm not going to try to stand in the way of that. We're interested in protecting our own autonomy and freedom."

The other argument, though, comes from families such as the Lafkins and organizations including Child Care Aware Virginia, whose executive director, Kimberly Taylor, said the goal of the bills is not to impinge upon the rights of religiously exempt day care centers but to protect children.

"I have my grandson in a religious exempt [day care center]. It's wonderful. I like that they're getting Christ-centered education," she said.

"However, I want to know his teacher does not have a criminal background. Just because you're working in a church does not mean you don't have a criminal background."

Requiring fingerprint background checks, Taylor said, is the surest way to ensure that a child care provider does not have a criminal past. Unlike fingerprint checks, name-based background checks are not capable of exposing aliases.

That is exactly why the Lafkins have been meeting with lawmakers in recent weeks to share their story.

"We had no idea," Cameron Lafkin said. "When you do a background check, you think it's going to be extensive, and then we were blinded with the police's news."

Elly Lafkin said Cami's day care provider hid behind a fake name, and now the Lafkins are hoping to prevent others from doing the same thing.

"Nobody leaves their child with a felon on purpose," she said.