How to Screen Direct Support Professionals (DSPs): 9 Questions and What to Listen For Screening Interview Template

What settings have you worked in supporting people with intellectual or developmental disabilities (group home, supported living, day program, in-home, school, behavioral health), how many individuals did you support at once, and what did a typical shift look like from clock-in to clock-out?

What this assesses: Establishes whether they have done this specific job or an adjacent one, since a one-to-one school aide and a DSP alone in a four-bed house on an awake overnight share a job title and almost nothing else. Strong answers name the setting, give a real ratio, and walk the shift in order: wake-ups, meds, personal care, breakfast, transport to a day program, notes. Be cautious with a candidate who describes the work only as 'helping people' or 'keeping them company,' who has supported one person in a quiet home and is applying to a house with four adults and active behavior plans, or who cannot describe a shift in sequence, since the ones who cannot picture the day are the ones who leave in week two.

Tell me about someone you supported who was working toward a specific goal, like cooking a meal, riding the bus alone, or managing their own money. What was your part in it, and how did you know it was working?

What this assesses: This separates direct support from caretaking, which is the whole philosophical difference in the role and the thing supervisors complain about most. Strong answers describe stepping back on purpose, prompting instead of doing, tolerating a slower or messier result so the person did it themselves, and tracking progress against a goal in the service plan. Be cautious with a candidate who describes doing everything for the person to save time, who cannot name a goal anyone was working on, or who talks about the people they supported as though they were patients rather than adults with their own lives, since that mindset produces compliant paperwork and no actual outcomes.

This job includes hands-on personal care for adults: bathing, toileting, incontinence care, and sometimes feeding or transfers. Which of those have you done, and which are you not comfortable with?

What this assesses: Ask it plainly, because this is the single most common reason a DSP quits in the first two weeks, and the applicant almost never volunteers the discomfort on their own. Strong answers name the tasks without flinching, describe protecting the person's dignity and privacy while doing them, and are honest about anything they have not done and would need training on. Be cautious with a candidate who dodges the specifics, says they will 'do whatever it takes' without ever having done it, or treats toileting and incontinence care as beneath the role. An honest 'I have not done transfers and would need to be trained' is a better answer than a confident yes you find out was false on day three.

Describe a time someone you supported became aggressive, hurt themselves, or left the house without staff. What did you actually do, and what training were you working from?

What this assesses: Behavior support is the part of the job that decides whether your incidents stay low and your staff stay safe. Strong answers name real training such as CPI, Mandt, Safety-Care, or positive behavior supports, describe giving space and reducing demands before anything else, follow the person's written behavior support plan rather than improvising, and treat physical intervention as an absolute last resort tied to imminent danger. Be cautious with a candidate who reaches for a hold or a restraint early, who describes arguing with or threatening the person, who talks about a behavior as though it were personal defiance rather than communication, or who has no training and no instinct for de-escalation. Also listen for what they did afterward: a strong DSP files the incident report the same shift and does not decide on their own that something was too minor to document.

Do you have a current medication certification or med pass training, and what state issued it? Walk me through what you check before handing someone their medication, and what you do if you realize an hour later that you missed a dose.

What this assesses: Med pass rules vary by state and by waiver program, so verify the credential rather than assuming it transfers. Strong answers name the certification and the state, describe the rights check (right person, medication, dose, time, route) without being prompted, know they document immediately after administration and not before, and say plainly that a missed or wrong dose gets reported to the nurse or on-call supervisor and written up right away. Be cautious with a candidate who is fuzzy on whether their certification is active, who would 'just give it late and not make a big deal of it,' or who hesitates on self-reporting an error, since medication errors that get buried are how a provider loses a license, not just a survey finding.

Most shifts include driving, either an agency van or your own car, to appointments, work sites, and community outings. Is your license current and in good standing, what would show up on your driving record for the last three years, and are you comfortable transporting individuals, including anyone who uses a wheelchair?

What this assesses: Agency auto insurance decides who can drive, not you, and a DSP who cannot get on the policy can only cover a fraction of the schedule. Strong answers confirm a current license, volunteer specific incidents with rough dates before you push, and are direct about wheelchair transport and lift or tie-down experience or the lack of it. Be cautious with a suspension or a DUI that surfaces only when cornered, a candidate who has never driven passengers and is uneasy about it, or someone who assumes driving is optional, since the schedule you are trying to fill probably has a van run on it every day.

How much documentation did your last role require, and what did you write? Give me an example of a daily note or a data sheet you filled out on a shift.

What this assesses: Documentation is not administrative overhead in this field, it is the billing record and the legal record, and unbilled shifts are money the agency never gets back. Strong answers describe real artifacts: progress notes tied to service plan goals, behavior data sheets, med administration records, incident reports, and they know notes get written during or right after the shift rather than reconstructed on Friday. Be cautious with a candidate who has never charted, who describes documentation as busywork that gets in the way of the real job, or who admits to catching up on a week of notes at once, since that habit turns into denied claims and an audit finding.

You come on shift and something is off: a bruise nobody can explain, cash missing from someone's account, or a coworker talking to an individual in a way that bothers you. What do you do?

What this assesses: People with IDD are among the most vulnerable adults in any care setting, and every DSP is a mandated reporter, so there is only one acceptable shape of answer here. Strong answers report it immediately to the supervisor and through the state abuse and neglect hotline where required, document exactly what they observed without speculating, and are unequivocal that they would report a coworker, including a friend or a supervisor. Be cautious with any hesitation, any version of 'I would talk to them first and see,' or any suggestion that they would wait to be sure, since that pause is the exact gap that abuse cases live in. Also ask directly whether anything would show up on a background check or a state registry, because a finding on an abuse registry disqualifies regardless of how good the rest of the screen looks.

We staff evenings, weekends, holidays, and awake overnights, and there are shifts where relief calls out and you are asked to stay over. What can you commit to, how are you getting to work, and how do you feel about a holdover?

What this assesses: Schedule reality is the number one cause of DSP turnover, and hiding it to close a candidate just moves the loss from the screen to week three. Strong answers give specific availability including weekends, confirm reliable transportation to a shift that starts or ends when transit is not running, and respond to the holdover question like an adult who has lived it: not thrilled, but understanding that you cannot leave a house unstaffed. Be cautious with a candidate who wants weekdays only, is vague about their ride to an overnight, or reacts to the holdover question with surprise, since that surprise becomes a no-call-no-show later. Score every applicant against the same [structured interview](/glossary/structured-interview) rubric so behavior support skill, honesty about personal care, and real availability decide the hire instead of who interviewed warmest, and expect meaningful [candidate drop-off](/glossary/candidate-drop-off) once the shift details are on the table, which is the point: you want that drop-off before the offer, not after training. Applying the same questions to every applicant is what keeps [high-volume recruiting](/glossary/high-volume-recruiting) consistent when you are filling six houses at once.