We have come to the time of year that almost every school aged child has looked forward to for the last 9-10 months, and that would be summer vacation. I am sure that many of the staff people have been looking forward to it almost as much as the students! With that in mind, you need to keep a couple of things in mind if you do background checks on your employees.

When school closes for the summer, generally there is minimal if any staff on site at the school. A lot of high schools will keep their doors open for half days 3-5 days a week, others shut down a week after school is out. Your background screening company will do everything they can to get you the information you need in a timely manner but there can be “roadblocks” in the way.

Generally what happens for summer education verification is the screener will contact the school. They have probably already attempted to find a school calendar on the school website to see if there is a listing for office staff. If the school is called and there is no answer, they should be checking with the board of education for that school. Sometimes the board office will hold records, sometimes they do not. It should be also noted that it is not unusual for the board office to close down for a couple of weeks in the month of July.

When school is back in session, it is generally a week or so before the offices have time to do verifications. They are trying to register students, get scheduling conflicts taken care of and work with any student that has issues during this time. All of these things can affect your turn around for getting the high school diploma for your applicant verified. Some companies ask their candidates to produce a copy and may make an offer based on a contingency. The contingency would be that when the schools reopen, the diploma will be verified by the screening agency to authenticate it.

This is just information to keep in mind so that you won’t get overly frustrated when it seems to take several weeks to get a high school diploma verified during this time.

Generally, these guidelines do not refer to colleges. Most colleges are open al year and offer summer classes for their students. Registrar’s offices at the college will usually keep summer staff available in order to verify former degrees as well as assist those student still on campus.

If you have any questions about how your background screener operates during this time frame, give them a call. They will be happy to work with you and show you what they are doing and why.