Finding childcare when the schedule changes
You are suddenly covering evenings you never had to cover, or mornings, or the two hours between school and whenever you can get home. So you download one of the apps, and the sitters are described as vetted, and that word does a great deal of work.
Every one of these companies means something different by it, and in every case the terms of service says less than the marketing page. That is not a scandal and it is not a reason to avoid them — it is a reason to know which check you are actually getting before you leave someone with your child.
The short version6 points · tap one to jump to it
- The same company, two documents — Here is its safety page, and here is its terms of service.
- Who is actually checked, and who pays for it — Everything in it comes from the company’s own pages.
- The one distinction worth learning: database or courthouse — Queries a compiled index built from records that individual jurisdictions chose to contribute.
- “Recommended by parents at your school” — This is UrbanSitter’s best feature and the reason people recommend it: you can see sitters used by families from your child’s school and your neighborhood groups.
- The part that is about the divorce, not the app — If the schedule genuinely will not work without regular paid childcare, that is a conversation to have on the record rather than a fact to establish quietly.
- What to ask, in the order that matters
In this subject 7
The same company, two documents
The short version6 points · tap one to jump to it
- The same company, two documents — Here is its safety page, and here is its terms of service.
- Who is actually checked, and who pays for it — Everything in it comes from the company’s own pages.
- The one distinction worth learning: database or courthouse — Queries a compiled index built from records that individual jurisdictions chose to contribute.
- “Recommended by parents at your school” — This is UrbanSitter’s best feature and the reason people recommend it: you can see sitters used by families from your child’s school and your neighborhood groups.
- The part that is about the divorce, not the app — If the schedule genuinely will not work without regular paid childcare, that is a conversation to have on the record rather than a fact to establish quietly.
- What to ask, in the order that matters
In this subject 7
Take UrbanSitter, which is the one most often recommended by other parents. Here is its safety page, and here is its terms of service. Both were live on the same day.
What the safety page says
“Every babysitter, nanny, and caregiver on UrbanSitter must complete a background check before their profile can be seen.”
What the terms of service says
“UrbanSitter has no obligation to conduct background or verification checks on families or providers.”
urbansitter.com trust page and terms of service. Read 8 September 2026. The terms passage appears in capitals in the original.
These are not in conflict as a matter of drafting. The first describes what the company currently does. The second describes what it has promised to keep doing, which is nothing. The terms are the document that governs if you ever have a complaint, and every company in this category has a version of that second paragraph.
Sittercity’s is the most direct. Under a heading reading SITTERCITY DOES NOT, its terms list, among other things, that it does not “screen Users or conduct any identity or background checks.” Bambino’s terms say “Bambino does not conduct background checks or otherwise screen users of the Services in any way.”
sittercity.com terms of use, section 1; bambinositters.com terms of use, limitation of liability. Read 8 September 2026.
Who is actually checked, and who pays for it
This is the table we wanted when we started looking and could not find anywhere. Everything in it comes from the company’s own pages.
| Service | Who gets checked | What the check covers | Re-run |
|---|---|---|---|
| UrbanSitter | Every caregiver, as a condition of the paid membership that lets them apply for jobs. | Social security number trace, national criminal search, current county criminal search, sex offender search, global watchlist. | Annually. |
| Care.com | An initial criminal check on all individual caregivers. Families are shown that it happened; the report itself is an upgrade. | Social security number trace, multi-jurisdictional database search, sex offender search, federal courthouse records, county criminal records. | Annually while active. |
| Sittercity | Nobody, unless somebody pays. Checks are not run automatically; a family or a sitter buys one. | Basic tier: current county only. The tier that searches every county the person has lived in costs more. | Badge expires after ninety days. |
| Bambino | Optional. A sitter may buy a check to display a badge. | National criminal search, sex offender registry, global watchlist. No county courthouse search is listed. | Annually, if renewed. |
Each company’s own background-check and support pages, read 8 September 2026. Screening is performed by outside vendors in every case; the companies name Checkr and Sterling.
The one distinction worth learning: database or courthouse
Notice how often the phrase current county appears in that table. It is the most important thing on this page and it is never explained in the marketing.
A national database search
Queries a compiled index built from records that individual jurisdictions chose to contribute. It is fast, it is cheap, and it is only as complete as what was sent in.
A county courthouse search
Looks at the actual records of an actual court, where American criminal cases actually live. It costs more and takes longer, and it is run per county — so it only covers the counties somebody paid to search.
“Current county” therefore means: the place they live now. Someone who moved last year, from anywhere, brings nothing with them into that search.
You do not have to take our word for the limits. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau examined background screening reports and found that some
“contain information about the wrong consumer, such as when a report shows an eviction record or criminal conviction that belongs to someone else”
and that some “omit existing disposition information” — a charge shown without the dismissal that followed it. The errors run in both directions. A clear report is weaker evidence than it looks, and a report with something on it may be describing somebody else entirely.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau advisory opinion on background screening, published 11 January 2024, page 4. Read at consumerfinance.gov, 8 September 2026.
This has been enforced against, once, publicly
In 2018 the Massachusetts Attorney General settled with Care.com over how it described its checks. The allegation was that the company said checks would cover the states and counties where a caregiver had lived, while not routinely searching the Massachusetts District Courts — where, the AG’s office said, the state keeps the majority of its misdemeanor and many of its felony records.
Reported settlement figures differ slightly between outlets, at around half a million dollars including restitution to consumers. We cite it not as a scandal but as the clearest public confirmation that the distinction on this page is real and that it was worth an attorney general’s time.
WBUR News, “State Reaches Settlement With Care.com Over Its Caregiver Background Checks,” 27 February 2018. Read 8 September 2026. A separate 2024 Federal Trade Commission action against the same company concerned job listings and cancellation, not screening, and is not the same matter.
“Recommended by parents at your school”
This is UrbanSitter’s best feature and the reason people recommend it: you can see sitters used by families from your child’s school and your neighborhood groups. It is genuinely useful and it is not a background check.
The two things answer different questions, and both questions matter:
- A parent recommendation tells you about competence and manner. Whether the sitter turns up, whether the children liked them, whether the kitchen was clean. No background check can tell you any of that, and it is most of what makes an evening go well.
- A records search tells you about a criminal history in the counties searched. It cannot tell you anything about someone who has never been charged, which is the overwhelming majority of everyone, including the overwhelming majority of people who should not be left with a child.
Neither is the thing that actually protects a child, which is unglamorous: a short first session while you are still in the house, references you telephone rather than read, and a child who is old enough to be asked afterward and young enough to answer honestly.
The part that is about the divorce, not the app
None of the marketplaces know anything about this, and it is the constraint most likely to cause you a problem.
- Your order may say who can care for the children, and it may say it in a way you have forgotten. Some orders name a right of first refusal — if you are unavailable for a stated period, the other parent must be offered the time before anyone else is called. Hiring a sitter for an evening covered by that clause is not a childcare decision, it is a breach. Look at the order before you book, not after.
- Childcare during your time is usually yours to arrange. Absent a clause saying otherwise, a parent exercising parenting time generally decides who watches the children during it. What that does not entitle you to do is arrange a new permanent arrangement affecting both households without discussing it.
- A regular sitter is a joint decision in practice even when it is not in law. Someone who will be in your children’s life weekly is a person the other parent will meet, form a view about, and be able to raise later. Presenting it as settled is how a small thing becomes a filing.
- Do not use the sitter as a message carrier or a witness. Not for handovers you would rather avoid, not for reporting what the children said. They have no privilege either, and you will have made an employee into a participant.
If the schedule genuinely will not work without regular paid childcare, that is a conversation to have on the record rather than a fact to establish quietly. It is also, in many cases, a cost that features in the money side of the case — which is a reason to keep the receipts from the first week rather than the fourteenth.
What to ask, in the order that matters
- Which check was run, and which counties did it cover? Not “are you background checked.” The answer to that is yes on every profile that has a badge, and it means four different things across four apps.
- When was it run? A badge from eleven months ago is a badge about last year.
- Where have you lived in the past seven years? Ask the sitter directly. If the answer includes a county that a current-county search would not have covered, you now know what your check did not look at.
- May I call two families you sit for now? Telephone them. A written review is a written review; a person on the phone will pause before saying something they do not mean.
- Are you comfortable that my children’s other parent may want to meet you? Asked at the start, this is an ordinary question. Asked in week six, it is a problem.
And the disclosure that belongs on any page like this one: we are not paid by any childcare service, we have no affiliate relationship with any of the companies named here, and none of them knows this page exists. Everything above was read on their own websites. If that ever changes it will say so on the page that explains how we make money before it appears anywhere else.