Staff must obtain criminal record clearance through Community Care Licensing before having contact with children. Employees with denied or pending clearance cannot be present.
Use the evidence list above as a daily-walk-through checklist. Most 1596.8662(b)(1) citations come from documentation gaps that surface during routine inspection — not surprise findings. Build the habit of capturing evidence (signed forms, dated logs, training records) and most of these go away.
All 12 most-cited rules in California with corrective-action templates and severity breakdowns. PDF emailed instantly.
Staff must obtain criminal record clearance through Community Care Licensing before having contact with children. Employees with denied or pending clearance cannot be present.
Inspectors typically check for: Caregiver allowed to start before fingerprint clearance returned; Volunteer or aide present without criminal record clearance on file; Returning staff member without active background-check clearance; Substitute working before clearance verification; Staff providing direct care while clearance application is pending.
1596.8662(b)(1) is the #1 most-cited rule in California, with 2,505 lifetime citations across CA DSS inspections — at least 890 distinct facilities have been cited for this rule.
High severity. High-severity citations weigh heavily in licensing decisions and can trigger inspections, probation, or adverse action.
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