Au Pair Agency Checklist
Posted: Tuesday, January 31, 2006
by Bootsey
Baby Find It
As a former Au Pair Host Mother and Community Counselor I encourage all familie
Checklist:
- Be sure they are a federally designated agency. To date there are only Eleven such Agencies.
- Be sure they allow you to interview your candidates and not THEM doing the match for you. Some allow only 1-2 candidates, while other agencies allow you to sift through their entire database so that you can be the one making the decision.
- PLEASE make sure that the agency you go with has health insurance for the au pairs!!!!!! SOME DO NOT!!!!!!!!
- Check with IAPA (International Au Pair Association) for pertinent information about guidelines for hosting or becoming an Au Pair in the United States.
- Be prepared to help your Au Pair attend approximately 3 classes during the year they are here. This can be a challenge to find classes within the federally allotted funds by the Government so do your homework.
- Do they offer an extended program for Au-Pair's if they want to stay for more than one year? Some Agencies now offer an extension program that allows the Au-Pairs to stay longer than a year. Please check out the pros-cons for this.
- Be sure they offer training for the girls before they step foot in your home.
- If you have a child under 2, the Government requires higher trained individuals to care for your child, please check that the agency you choose differentiates their candidates for under 2 childcare.
- Make sure a Criminal Background check is done by the AGENCY or an affilliated partner.
- Who Interviews the candidates before you actually get to speak to them. Some agencies will take any girls that sign up? It is pertinent that they go through a screening process before being approved by an agency.
- Does the agency actually check references? Are you allowed to see them and follow up on your own?
- Have the individuals been thoroughly screened by a health care provider? Are you allowed to see these records?
- Be sure to ask that you can view all of the information about the candidate that they agency has on record. If they do not have it or will not show it to you then something is amiss.
- How long has the Agency been in business?
- Do they offer any referrals of their own?
- Are these things included in your cost:
- Round Trip Airfare
- Health Insurance
- Background checks
- References
- Health Screening Check
- In-Depth Interviews
- Development and Safety Instruction
- Is there a community counselor in your area? It is so important for the Au Pairs to have a physical support system close to them.
- Are there many other Au Pairs close to you?
- Does the Agency assist Au Pairs to get the appropriate Visa?
- Do they mandate and require certain Visa's before accepting them into the program?
It is always best to do your homework before delving into something that can affect your children and your entire family. Au Pair's are wonderful additions to families and can be the best experience in the world, BUT, if you don't do your homework it can be a nightmare. If you have any specific questions that you feel I can assist you with, please feel free to contact me and I will do my best to answer.
Some of my resources were drawn from http://www.iapa.org, http://www.euraupair.com and http://www.gonannies.com
I was a Host Mother for 4 years and the Au Pairs were from Spain, Germany, Canada and Turkey. I have 4 children (three of whom are triplets). I was then a Volunteer Community Counselor an additional 2 years. I will not name the organization I was working with but will attempt to educate the public in many aspects of this realm of Child-Care.
More information can easily be found by running a search under the term "Au Pair"
For questions I may be reached at info@babyfindit.com
This Article has been viewed 670 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)I have found a family throught online matching system I checked references used my instinct and everything worked for me perfectly. I think you may get bad au pair or family either from an agency or from matching system, there is many factors. But I would recommed online matching system. It is easy, fast and the most important it is cheap
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