Louisiana Micro-School Background Check Requirements: IdentoGO Fingerprinting

If you are running a Louisiana micro-school or learning pod where you hire tutors, instructors, or other non-parent adults who work with children, background checks are not optional. They are the legal and ethical baseline for anyone operating an educational program for other families' children. Getting this wrong — hiring without screening, or using an inadequate check — exposes you to both legal liability and devastating reputational risk if something goes wrong.

This post covers what background check process applies to Louisiana micro-schools, how the IdentoGO fingerprinting system works, and what you actually need to do to screen someone properly.

What Louisiana Law Requires

Louisiana law (R.S. 15:587.1 et seq.) requires criminal background checks for individuals working with children in certain regulated settings. For registered nonpublic schools and institutions serving minors, staff and volunteers who have unsupervised access to children must be screened.

The specific mandate that applies depends partly on how your micro-school is registered:

• BESE-approved nonpublic schools are subject to explicit state requirements including fingerprint-based background checks through the Louisiana State Police for all employees
• Nonpublic schools not seeking state approval (NPNSA) have more flexibility in how they conduct checks, but this does not mean no checks are required — it means the specific procedure is less prescriptive

Regardless of your registration category, if you are accepting tuition payments from other families and employing or contracting adults to work with their children, you have a duty-of-care obligation. Families will ask whether you run background checks. Parents who are giving you unsupervised access to their child during the school day have every right to expect that the answer is yes.

The IdentoGO Fingerprinting Process

The standard background check system used by Louisiana for child-serving environments is administered through IdentoGO, which is the authorized provider for Louisiana State Police (LSP) fingerprint-based criminal history checks.

Fingerprint-based checks are significantly more thorough than name-based checks because they cross-reference directly against state and FBI criminal records databases, not just publicly available court records. They will surface records that a simple Google search or name-only check would miss.

The process works as follows:

1. Identify the correct service code

IdentoGO processes fingerprints for dozens of different licensing authorities and employers. You need to enter the correct service code when scheduling so the results are sent to the right place and checked against the right database. For Louisiana micro-schools seeking LSP checks for child-care purposes, use the Louisiana State Police service codes designated for childcare and education providers. The specific code relevant to your situation can be confirmed at identogo.com or by calling IdentoGO's Louisiana support line.

2. Schedule an appointment

Applicants (your tutors or staff) schedule their own fingerprinting appointment at an IdentoGO enrollment center. Louisiana has enrollment centers in major cities including Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport, Lafayette, and Lake Charles, among others. Walk-in appointments are available at some locations; scheduled appointments move faster.

3. Pay the fee

The current fee for a Louisiana State Police fingerprint-based background check through IdentoGO is approximately $60.75 per individual. This fee is paid at the time of the appointment. As the employer or pod operator, you can choose to pay this directly, reimburse the employee, or require the employee to bear the cost — this is a business decision.

4. Results delivery

Results are typically returned to the requesting authority within three to seven business days of fingerprint submission. For some service codes, results are sent to the employer or institution; for others, they are sent directly to the individual who was fingerprinted, who then provides you with the result.

5. Maintain a screening log

Keep a record of when each employee or contractor was screened, the date of the check, and the result. If a question ever arises about your screening practices, this documentation shows you acted responsibly.

What the Check Will and Will Not Show

A Louisiana State Police fingerprint-based check through IdentoGO will surface:

• Louisiana criminal history records (arrests, charges, convictions)
• FBI national criminal history records if the individual has been fingerprinted federally
• Sex offender registry status

It will not automatically show:

• Civil court records
• Out-of-state criminal records in states that do not participate in national repositories (though FBI national checks capture most of these)
• Juvenile records in many cases (expunged or sealed records)

For most micro-school hiring decisions, the LSP/FBI fingerprint check is the appropriate standard. If you are hiring a tutor with an extensive out-of-state history you want to verify, supplementing with a commercial background check service (such as Checkr or HireRight) that includes nationwide county-level court searches provides additional coverage.

Name-Only Checks Are Insufficient

Some pod founders attempt to run background checks by using free or low-cost online "people search" services or by checking the Louisiana Sex Offender and Child Predator Registry manually. While checking the sex offender registry is worthwhile and takes five minutes at lsp.org/sexoffender, name-only checks are not a substitute for fingerprint-based screening.

Name-based checks can miss records for individuals who have used aliases, middle names instead of first names, or who have records in states with different record-keeping practices. Fingerprints do not lie and cannot be aliased.

The Practical Screening Process for a New Hire

When you bring on a new tutor or instructor for your Louisiana pod, the sequence is:

1. Conduct the interview and make a conditional offer subject to background check clearance
2. Provide the candidate with the IdentoGO service code and instructions for scheduling
3. Confirm the appointment has been scheduled before they begin any work with students
4. Receive and review the background check result before the employee's first day of instruction
5. Log the date and result in your screening records
6. Repeat the check every two to three years or per your pod's written policy — criminal history is not static

Do not allow any adult who has not cleared a background check to have unsupervised access to enrolled students. This is not just legal protection — it is the baseline of responsible operation that families trust you to maintain.

The Louisiana Micro-School & Pod Kit includes a staff screening policy template, the specific IdentoGO instructions for Louisiana micro-schools, and the other operational documents — parent contracts, liability waivers, LLC formation checklist — that complete your pod's legal foundation.

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