Building a Culture of Prevention
You can help protect the children you serve by maintaining an environment that prioritizes both preventing child abuse before it occurs and—since…
Home / Screening & Hiring / Know the State & Federal Laws That Apply
State and federal laws and regulations require specific types of screening and background checks—particularly criminal and sexual offense records checks—for individuals and professions that provide certain services to children and youth. Specific types of screening and background checks may also be required in order for you to receive state or federal funding.
There is no “one size fits all” screening requirement—organizations have their own unique requirements and may make different decisions about what background checks to conduct. Some (e.g., public schools) have strict requirements, while others are left to the discretion of the organization (e.g., an afterschool program in a faith community). These requirements may also limit the use of certain types of screening information to exclude an individual from consideration. Therefore, if, after review, you’re still uncertain about the rules and requirements that apply to your operation, we recommend that your leadership consult with an attorney and/or relevant professional association(s) for advice and guidance.
We do have one universal recommendation, however: that every youth-serving organization like yours implements some level of a background check and screening for all employees and volunteers without exception—even if an applicant is known to you—especially if unsupervised or unmonitored interactions with children are expected. And keep in mind as you conduct criminal history and background checks that, unless specified otherwise by law, the existence of a criminal record does not necessarily automatically disqualify an applicant.
Reporting
You can help protect the children you serve by maintaining an environment that prioritizes both preventing child abuse before it occurs and—since…
Screening & Hiring
Screening means thorough reference and background checks, including review of criminal and sexual offender records, for all employees, staff,…
Code of Conduct
Your Code of Ethics helps to guide the behavior and decision-making of your staff, volunteers, and participants by clarifying the standards and…
Safe Environments
Safe Environment Strategies: Access Complementing the physical aspects of safety are the procedural aspects of safety and security, and how…
Sustainability
Depending on the size of your youth-serving organization, the data you’ll need to collect and analyze—or even simply summarize—could be…
Training
Training programs are offered to staff at least annually to heighten awareness of your commitment to safety and help create a culture of…
Training
Training Best Practices To protect the children/youth you serve, your organization needs a comprehensive framework: a set of abuse prevention…
Code of Conduct
Your Code of Conduct should cultivate standards of behavior for staff and volunteers at your Youth-Serving Organization (YSO) which prioritize child…
Sustainability
In order to uphold a culture of safety at your Youth-Serving Organization (YSO), communication between leadership, staff and volunteers must focus…
Screening & Hiring
One way you can help prevent child sexual abuse within your organization is by screening out those at risk to cause harm—before they are hired …
Customized child sexual abuse prevention guidelines to meet the unique needs of any organization that serves children.
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