Every year, thousands of children are placed in homes with adoptive families or foster families that promise to provide a warm, loving home for the children placed in their care. Because the welfare of these children are very important to the case workers that are responsible for their safety, all of these potential parents must have their child abuse and neglect background check results reviewed to ensure that they will not pose a danger to the child placed in their care.

For the vast majority of the individuals that would like to adopt a child, their child abuse and neglect background check results will not contain any information that may disqualify them from adopting a child. Only a small fraction of the individuals will have items on their background check that will raise a warning flag for the people that are reviewing the information. These warning items will generally include any convictions for child abuse, neglect, rape of a minor, or domestic violence.

In many cases, the agency that is handling the adoption or the placement of the foster child will require the review of child abuse and neglect background check results for all of the adults located in the household. If any of the adults in the household refuses to consent to a background check, the family's application will be rejected and the agency will not place a child in the home. If any of the family members in the home have been convicted of crimes against children or crimes against each other, then they will be rejected as an adoptive family.

All of the states in the nation, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam, have legislation requiring the review of child abuse and neglect background check results prior to placing the child in the home of strangers. The only exception to the rule is when the child is being placed in the home of other family members as a background check is not always required when family members take charge of the child. This arrangement can be temporary or the child can reside with these family members until they reach adulthood.

The child abuse and neglect background check results will contain information from criminal records on the local, state, and federal levels of government. The records from all states are searched and the records that are found are compiled into a single easy to read report. This report is used as part of the process whether the home is a safe and appropriate environment for a child to be placed in. If the agency believes that the home would not be a safe place for the child, either through the information obtained from the background checks or from observing the behavior in the home, the household's adoption petition will be rejected and the agency will not place a child in the home.