You asked why background checks for prospective adoptive parents in Connecticut take so long. You also wanted to know if background checks performed through an employer could be used to speed up the process.

There are two routes to becoming an adoptive parent in Connecticut. The first way is through the Department of Children and Families (DCF). The other way is through a DCF-licensed child placing agency. The background check process is the same for both methods.

The background check process takes about nine weeks for prospective parents using DCF. For prospective parents using a child placing agency, it should take about the same amount of time, as long as the child placing agency submitted their requests in a timely fashion, according to Karl Kemper, chief of DCF's Bureau of Child Welfare Services.

Regardless of whether the adoption is through DCF or a DCF-licensed child placing agency, three steps must be taken as part of checking a prospective parent's or parents' suitability. The steps can happen concurrently.

A check must be made of the child protective service central database to see if a prospective adoptive parent has a record of substantiated abuse. This is performed by DCF. A DCF worker enters the prospective parent's or parents' names into the database. More common names, such as Jennifer Smith or John Jones, will return more results than an uncommon name, such as Phidippides O'Lafalal. Numerous results need to be individually searched. All searches are then checked and verified. DCF then faxes or mails the results back to the requestor. The search process itself usually takes about 25 minutes.

DCF appears to experience about a three-week lat in performing searches. According to Kemper, on April 3, 2007, DCF processed requests received on March 13, 2007. DCF receives about 8,000 requests to check their database per month, many from the Departments of Social Services and Motor Vehicles. Kemper said about 2,500 to 3,000 per month need manual searches done, which exceeds the department's current staffing, thus creating the backlog.

Next, DCF checks the State Police criminal database directly for Connecticut criminal history. DCF can do this directly since the department can access the database. This process takes just a few minutes and the turnaround time for a request from a DCF-licensed child placing agency is minimal.

Finally, the child-placing agency or DCF must submit a search with the National Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) database to check on the prospective parent's or parents' criminal history beyond Connecticut. As with the state criminal records check, this produces exact matches. However, it is a protracted process and receiving results can take months. Kemper said Connecticut has applied for access to the NCIS database and will hopefully have it soon. This access would help speed background checks.

When a DCF-licensed child placing agency certifies prospective parents, all documents must be in place and no documents can pre-date the application date. Because of this, it is not possible for a background check performed for employment to be used to for an adoption process.