Why Agencies Ask

Unlike the health documents, references are not a state requirement; they are the agency’s own hiring standard, and a sensible one. An aide works alone in a client’s home, often with a vulnerable person, and the agency is responsible for who it sends. Two people saying “I have seen this person be reliable and kind” is the simplest check there is, and HR will usually call at least one of them.

Who Counts as a Reference

What a Good Letter Says

Keep it short and specific. Dates, letterhead and formal language are not required; a signed note with a phone number is. A five-line template you can give your reference:

• Who I am: name, job or relationship to you, phone number and email.
• How I know you: “I supervised [name] at [place] from [month year] to [month year]” or “[Name] cared for my mother in our home in Flatbush for eight months.”
• What you did: two or three concrete tasks: bathing and transfers, meals, medication reminders, night shifts, working with a client with dementia.
• What they think: reliability, punctuality, patience, honesty; one sentence each is enough.
• Signature and date.

Typed and signed, or handwritten and photographed, both work. A short email from the reference’s own address, with their phone number, is also accepted by most agencies.

New to Caregiving?

Use references from any job, from your training program, or from volunteer work; tell HR the situation and they will say what works. Many caregivers who trained at our free PCA school use an instructor as one reference. It is better to upload one good letter now and add the second later than to wait for both; the portal keeps track.

Upload Them Once

Use the secure upload page. Previous: TB test. Next: drug screen. Full list: the 9 documents.