Sex offender screening API for elder care & assisted living
Screen caregivers, aides, and facility staff against every US sex-offender registry with source-verified results — built for organizations serving elderly and vulnerable residents.
25 free searches, no card. $0.15 a call, no platform fee, no seats, no minimum. No code needed: search from your dashboard, or integrate the full API when you’re ready.
curl https://api.offendersearch.app/v1/search \ -H "X-API-Key: $OFFENDERSEARCH_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"query": {"firstName": "Marta", "lastName": "Reyes", "dob": "1952-03-14", "ageTolerance": 1}}' // response { "status": "complete", "elapsedMs": 410, "counts": { "records": 0, "sourcesQueried": 58, "sourcesComplete": 58, "sourcesIncomplete": 0 }, "records": [] } // a match carries its reason { "matchState": "dob_match", "matchConfidence": 0.98, "matchBasis": ["lastName:exact", "firstName", "dob"] }
Making a hiring decision? Use an FCRA workflow.
If a result will help decide whether to hire someone, the check has to run as an FCRA-regulated consumer report, with a permissible purpose, consent, accuracy controls and a dispute path for the person. Our standard search and API are not a consumer report, and standard results are never used for that decision. FCRA workflows run through FCRA Partner Access, for background check companies and screening platforms under a written FCRA agreement.
FCRA pricing is quoted per partner, so contact us for pricing.
Screening challenges for assisted-living and elder-care operators
- Caregivers work closely with elderly and vulnerable residents
- Multi-facility operators need one consistent check across every US registry
- Compliance requires documented, source-verified screening
What sex offender screening gives assisted-living and elder-care operators
Standardize screening across every facility
Continuously re-verify active caregivers
Keep a source-verified compliance record
Elder Care & Assisted Living sex offender check API: request and response. One POST per person, or the same search from the dashboard with no code.
curl https://api.offendersearch.app/v1/search \ -H "X-API-Key: $OFFENDERSEARCH_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"query": {"firstName": "Marta", "lastName": "Reyes", "dob": "1952-03-14", "ageTolerance": 1}}' // response { "status": "complete", "elapsedMs": 410, "counts": { "records": 0, "sourcesQueried": 58, "sourcesComplete": 58, "sourcesIncomplete": 0 }, "records": [] } // a match carries its reason { "matchState": "dob_match", "matchConfidence": 0.98, "matchBasis": ["lastName:exact", "firstName", "dob"] }
Send what you have. Name and date of birth; age or birth year when that is all you hold. Date of birth drives matchState: dob_match, year_match, age_match or no_dob_age_year.
Read the counts. sourcesComplete against sourcesQueried says whether all 58 registries answered, so a partial search is never read as a clear one.
Branch on the score. matchConfidence and matchBasis on every record, with the registry cited.
| Person | Checked for | Result | Answered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marta Reyes | move-in | No match | 58 / 58 |
| Jordan Sample | move-in | Match · dob_match | 58 / 58 |
| J. Sample | move-in | Review · year_match | 58 / 58 |
Read the API docs › · Search from the dashboard › · Screen a CSV without code ›
Sex offender screening built for elder care & assisted living. One key, one schema, one stored record of every check.
One consistent check across every US registry
The same API covers every state a multi-facility operator works in, catching out-of-state history in one call.
Recurring re-verification
Keep active caregivers continuously re-checked with Weekly or Daily freshness tiers.
Alerts follow the person, not the listing
A resident, visitor or volunteer you monitor stays one alert thread even when a registry renumbers its records.
Documented provenance
Every hit carries source provenance and its lastCheckedAt for the compliance file.
Read next: Senior living visitor screening API · Visitor screening API
When assisted-living and elder-care operators run a sex offender check. Each moment, and the call that fits it.
Before staff start
Caregivers, aides, dietary and maintenance staff are screened before they work around residents.
At resident admission
Some states require resident screening at admission so the facility can plan supervision and rooms.
For visitors and volunteers
Regular visitors, volunteers and contractors get a check before unescorted access.
Across the census and roster, continuously
Monitoring alerts you when a resident’s or staff member’s registry status changes.
Elder Care & Assisted Living screening workflow. Step by step, from the first call to the stored record.
Know your state’s rule. Resident-screening and staff-screening rules differ by state; start from yours.
Search the 58 US registries at admission and hire. One call by name and date of birth.
Record the result in the resident or HR file. Keep the response, date and reviewer.
Plan supervision when a resident is registered. Where the law requires it — Illinois, for example — that includes room assignment and notice.
Monitor residents and staff. Alerts arrive on status changes.
Elder Care & Assisted Living screening: what the law requires
Assisted living inherits the same two-sided structure as skilled nursing, but the resident-side duty is written more explicitly in some states — and it comes with a disclosure obligation attached. Virginia is the clearest worked example in the country, and it is worth reading in full even if you operate elsewhere, because it shows what a legislature asks for once it decides the question matters.
Illinois is the clearest resident-screening law: nursing homes must check new residents against the registries within 24 hours of admission and give a registered sex offender their own room (210 ILCS 45/2-201.5), with notification duties in 2-201.6. Florida’s Level 2 staff screening includes the sex offender registries of any state the employee lived in during the past five years (Fla. Stat. § 435.04).
Not every state that is assumed to require resident screening does. Texas assisted living admission rules (26 TAC § 553.259) contain no registry requirement, and the CMS National Background Check Program, often cited as a federal mandate, was a voluntary grant that ended in 2024. Facilities screen residents because it lets them plan supervision — and because the other residents are among the most vulnerable people anywhere.
| Jurisdiction | Citation | Applies to | What it requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia | 22VAC40-73-350(B) | Residents | The facility must ascertain, prior to admission, whether a prospective resident is a registered sex offender where the stay will exceed three days, and document the determination in the resident record. |
| Virginia | 22VAC40-73-350(A) | Residents | The facility must register with the Department of State Police to receive notice of any sex offender registration or reregistration in the facility’s zip code area. |
| Virginia | 22VAC40-73-350(C)–(D) | Residents | Residents must be informed about registry information prior to or at admission and annually thereafter, with written acknowledgment retained; on request the facility must assist in accessing the information and provide printed copies. |
| Virginia | 12VAC5-371-150(H) | Residents | The parallel nursing-facility rule, for operators running both licence types: registry status must be ascertained prior to admission for any stay expected to exceed three days. |
And what it doesn’t
There is no federal assisted-living analogue to any of this. Assisted living is licensed state by state, and most states impose no resident-side registry duty at all — the obligations above are Virginia’s, not the country’s. Equally, the CMS National Background Check Program is sometimes cited as though it were a standing requirement; it was a voluntary state grant programme, its funding ended, and the last participating states exited in May 2024. Operators screening residents outside a state that requires it are acting on duty of care and insurer expectation, which is a sound basis — just not a statutory one.
Citations link to the primary text. This is background, not legal advice: obligations change, and your counsel is the right reader of your own facts.
Screening practices for assisted-living and elder-care operators. Record what you checked, not just what you found.
| NJ | New Jersey · answered | 0 |
| NY | New York · answered | 0 |
| PA | Pennsylvania · answered | 0 |
| FL | Florida · answered | 0 |
| TX | Texas · answered | 0 |
Check the licence type, not the building. A campus running assisted living and skilled nursing under separate licences may sit under two different rule sets on the same site. Virginia writes the same duty twice, in two chapters, for exactly that reason.
Build the disclosure into admission paperwork. Where a state requires residents to be informed about registry access, the acknowledgment is part of the duty. Handling it as a form at admission — and again annually — is far easier than reconstructing it later.
Screen before the three-day line, not after it. Rules keyed to length of stay create a trap for respite and short-stay admissions that extend. Screening every admission avoids having to predict which ones will run long.
Re-screen the standing census. Registration status changes after move-in. A periodic sweep of current residents and staff keeps the picture accurate beyond admission day.
Registry and criminal records for elder care & assisted living, on one key. Most assisted-living and elder-care operators need more than one check, and running two vendors means two integrations, two contracts and two invoices.
Sex offender registry
58 US registries, continuously updated, with photographs, aliases, addresses and the official record citation on every match. 1.5M records in one schema.
Sex offender API ›Criminal records
1,408 county jail rosters, 53 state corrections systems, courts, warrants and federal custody, almost 50 million records in the same scored, source-cited schema. Same key, same price.
Criminal search API ›FCRA background checks
When a result decides a hire or a tenancy, the check runs as an FCRA order through FCRA Partner Access: consent, the check, disputes and adverse-action steps. Pricing is quoted per partner.
FCRA Partner Access ›Coverage today: 1,914 criminal jurisdictions catalogued, 1,564 live, 51 states + DC + federal. See what each state publishes, or the live list at /v1/criminal/sources.
A BAA before the first search
The check needs only a name and date of birth. Where you send protected health information, an account admin signs the Business Associate Agreement in the dashboard first, and every check is stored for the surveyor or the payer.
Compliance posture for a healthcare buyer
Business Associate Agreement. Signed by an account admin in the dashboard under Compliance, or scoped by counsel on request. HIPAA & BAA ›
Stored, exportable audit trail. Every search kept with query, timestamp, per-source outcome and reviewer. Trust & security ›
Team workspaces and access control. Admissions and HR in separate workspaces on an enterprise plan, net-30 or net-60 invoicing. Enterprise on pricing ›
Security review answered in writing. Questionnaires, data handling and subprocessors through the security contact. Contact ›
What elder care & assisted living screening costs per check. $0.15 a call, $0.11 past 2,000 a month. No platform fee, no seats, no minimum.
| Checks / month | Cost | Per check |
|---|---|---|
| 500 | $75.00 | $0.1500 |
| 5,000 | $630.00 | $0.1260 |
| 50,000 | $5,580.00 | $0.1116 |
A batch is billed per row, so bulk screening costs the same per person as a single lookup. No setup fee, no per-seat licence, no monthly minimum on search and no annual contract, so the price scales down with you as well as up. A fraction of what legacy screening platforms charge.
The background check API · screen a CSV without code. More for developers: the free background check API tier, background check API pricing, the employment screening API and tenant screening API, and the background check API in Python and background check API in Node.js tutorials.
Elder Care & Assisted Living screening FAQ
For anything else, talk to sales or read the API docs.
Does this replace our broader background checks?
It complements them. OffenderSearch covers sex-offender registries specifically and is designed to slot into a broader screening and credentialing process.
Is the data current enough for a care setting?
Use the Daily freshness tier for near-live re-verification; every record shows its lastCheckedAt.
Do assisted living facilities have to screen residents for sex offender status?
Some states require it — Illinois nursing homes must check within 24 hours of admission. Many states, including Texas for assisted living, have no such rule. Facilities often screen anyway to plan supervision.
What happens if a resident is registered?
The facility applies its state rule and its own policy. In Illinois that includes a private room and notice; elsewhere it usually means a supervision plan.
Can we screen visitors?
Yes, by name and date of birth, before unescorted access. Visitor management integrations do this at check-in.
Related
Screen assisted-living and elder-care operators with one API
Screen caregivers, aides, and facility staff against every US sex-offender registry with source-verified results — built for organizations serving elderly and vulnerable residents.