Reference checks for childcare staff: questions to ask previous employers

One federal rule puts reference verification squarely in the pre-hire sequence: the Head Start Program Performance Standards, which the Office of Head Start administers.

Under 45 CFR 1302.90(b), before a person is hired — "directly or through contract, including transportation staff and contractors" — a Head Start program must conduct an interview, verify references, run a sex offender registry check, and obtain either a state or tribal or an FBI fingerprint criminal history check.

The contract language matters for coverage: a cook, a driver or a van contractor brought in through an agreement is inside the rule the same as a classroom teacher.

A pending proposal to watch: ACF's August 2026 proposed Head Start rule would drop the Performance Standards' own background-check procedures, saying statutory requirements and state CCDBG-aligned background checks would still apply; our research did not confirm whether the pre-hire reference step would change.

A proposal is not a final rule — 45 CFR 1302.90(b) is current law as of October 2026 — so follow the rulemaking and confirm the current requirement with the Office of Head Start.

A Head Start standard does not transfer to a private center.

For a childcare center or family child care program outside Head Start, whether references — or a written record of them in your hiring file — are required is set by your state child care licensing agency, and our research did not verify the state-by-state requirements.

Ask before you decide the call is optional: your licensing contact, or the regulations your agency publishes, is the authority on what your program's hiring file has to hold.

Even where no rule names them, references are a distinct screen from the background check — under the Head Start rule the two sit side by side as separate requirements, and they answer different questions.

The fingerprint and registry checks are about the record — what a criminal history check and a sex offender registry check return; a supervisor's account is about how the person actually ran a room, showed up and handled a hard day.

The checks have their own federal process and timeline, which the childcare background-check process for employers covers step by step.

Confirm before you hire: make the reference question part of your pre-offer checklist either way — for a Head Start program the verification is a federal requirement before the hire under current law, and for every other program the state child care licensing agency is the authority on what your state expects.

Call the person who supervised the candidate — a director, an owner, a lead they reported to — not a coworker, and not a friend or relative.

If the number you were given is a cell, confirm you have reached the right person and their role.

Ask the same core questions of every reference, so the answers can be compared across candidates instead of just collected.

Work down a script like this one:

1. Confirm the basics. "Can you confirm their title, the ages they worked with, and their dates of employment?" Dates and role are the easiest facts to verify, and a mismatch here colors everything else.
2. The room itself. "What ages and groups did they work with, and what did they handle day to day?" This anchors the reference's answers in work you recognize.
3. Reliability. "How was their attendance and punctuality?" and "How much notice did they give before leaving?" Coverage is the day-to-day reality of a classroom; a pattern of short notice is worth knowing before you build a schedule around someone.
4. Classroom conduct. "How did they handle it when a child had a hard day?" Listen for constructive, age-appropriate guidance described with a specific example — not just "good with kids."
5. Supervision. "How did they keep children accounted for — transitions, the playground, meal times, nap?" For infant and toddler rooms, ask how they handled safe sleep. If the reference hesitates here, that belongs in your notes.
6. Families. "How did they handle conversations with parents at drop-off and pickup?" A teacher's day runs through family communication; the reference has seen it.
7. The close. "Would you hire them again?" and "Is there anything else a program hiring them for a classroom should know?" If you ask only one question, make it the rehire question — and write down the pause as well as the answer.

What you are listening for is specifics.

A supervisor who actually managed the candidate can name rooms, routines and incidents; a personal reference speaks in adjectives.

Where you can, capture the answers in the reference's own words — documenting the call is covered below.

And keep the two question sets separate in your process: what you ask the candidate is the interview's job, which the childcare interview process guide covers; the reference call is where you check those answers against how the person actually worked.

The red flags are less often a bad sentence than a shape — a gap, a dodge, an answer that doesn't line up with the rest of the file:

• The basics don't match. Dates, title or age groups that differ from the résumé — sometimes an honest slip, sometimes not; either way it gets reconciled before an offer.
• No supervisor on the list. For a candidate with prior program experience, every reference being a friend, relative or peer is a follow-up question. There are ordinary reasons a director isn't reachable — a closed program, a small home-based setting — so ask rather than assume.
• Vagueness on the rehire question. "I'd have to think about it" from the person who employed them is information. Note what was said and what wasn't.
• Hesitation on supervision or safety. A reference who goes quiet when you ask how children were kept accounted for, or who describes an incident involving a child's safety, is telling you something that belongs in the candidate's file in their own words — to weigh against everything else you know, not to act on alone.
• Answers that contradict the interview. If the candidate described leading a pre-K room solo and the reference describes assisting under a lead teacher, the discrepancy is the finding — ask the candidate about it before you decide.
• A reference you can't place. Someone you can't confirm was actually the candidate's supervisor. Calling the program's main number, not only the number supplied, is the cheap version of this check.

One uncomfortable answer is not automatically a verdict.

Circumstances vary — programs close, supervisors leave, personalities clash — so look for what holds up across references and what reconciles with the interview.

What you are protecting is the consistency of your own process: the same questions, asked of every reference, with the answers recorded the same way.

Write the record at the time of the call, not from memory afterward: the date, who you spoke to and their title, the program and number you reached, the questions you asked, a summary of the answers in the reference's words, and your name as the caller.

Use the same template for every candidate — notes taken consistently are what let you compare candidates fairly and show the work behind a hiring decision months later.

File the note with the rest of that person's hiring paperwork.

The personnel files checklist shows what else belongs in the same record — application, interview notes, the background-check result — so the whole screen sits in one place when a licensing visit or a new director asks for it.

For a Head Start program, the verification itself is a federal requirement before the hire under 45 CFR 1302.90(b) — current law, though subject to the pending August 2026 proposal described above — so the note is the program's record that the step happened, for contract hires as much as direct ones.

For other programs, whether your state expects references — or a written record of them — in the licensing file is a question for your state child care licensing agency; our research did not verify the state-by-state requirements.

Set the policy before the next opening: decide who makes the calls, which questions get asked of every reference, and where the note is filed — then write it into your hiring process, so the step doesn't depend on who happens to be doing the hiring that week.

This page is employer information, not licensing or legal advice. Reference requirements are set by your state child care licensing agency and, for Head Start programs, by the Head Start Program Performance Standards at 45 CFR 1302.90 — confirm the current requirements with your state child care licensing agency and, for Head Start programs, with the Office of Head Start before you hire.