Summer is coming and that means children around the country will be going to camp or other youth programs. This means that children an at-risk populace of the USA will be spending in some cases unsupervised time with coaches, counselors and other volunteer personnel. As recent news has highlighted it can be disastrous for children to be in this kind of environment with a sexual predator or other kind of criminal that puts the safety of a child at risk.
Laws are changing in regards to criminal background checks on employees and volunteers for youth programs like summer camp. In Delaware a new law went into effect on April 7th 2016 “mandating background checks for all … summer camp employees.” This new law originates due to a task force discovering a significant inconsistency in volunteer background screening. http://delawarepublic.org/post/background-checks-required-summer-camp-workers-starting-april#stream/0
In New Orleans the recent arrest of a volunteer baseball coach highlights a clear need for volunteer background screening.
From NOLA.com (Mar. 10, 16):
(1) …questions about the screening process arose after… a former football, baseball and basketball coach who had volunteered for decades, was arrested in October. In February, a grand jury charged him with aggravated rape of a child younger than 13, four counts of sexual battery, four counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile and nine counts of production of pornography involving juveniles. nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/03/jefferson_parish_background_ch.html
The incident above clearly identifies the importance of vetting volunteers especially those with access to children. Adults including counselors, coaches and volunteers whose positions give them unsupervised time with children must be properly vetted to both avoid harm to the children and to deter potential past offenders from applying for such a position . It is a powerful preventative measure for past offenders to apply for such a position if they are aware that they will be professionally screened before being hired as they know their criminal history will be discovered.
Using public records like court records in addition to conducting an in-depth interview and a credentials check will act as a deterrent against potential predators along with weeding out individuals with a criminal past. Not doing this may prove catastrophic to at-risk populations like children. For this reason and others it is incumbent for companies, organizations and youth programs to fully screen all their employees and volunteers through a professional background screening company. It is also a good time to develop a clear and legal employment screening policy for full time employees, part time employees and volunteers.
The new Delaware law and recent cases of malfeasance conducted by volunteers has highlighted the need to work with professional third party background screening companies to help properly vet any employee or volunteer position that has unsupervised time with children.
Since children fall into the at-risk population it is imperative that all those spending time with children undergo a thorough background screening including a comprehensive national criminal background check and national sex offender registry search. It also makes since to perform a social security number (SSN) validation with address history trace as this will discover if their SSN is valid along with revealing current and past addresses associated with the SSN. The volunteer background screening should also include a rigorous face to face interview and reference checks both personal and professional. Additionally those positions requiring certain degrees, certificates or licenses should also undergo a professional license verification.
To read more regarding volunteer background checks and how to help prevent at-risk populations like children from being harmed from previous offenders and predators read recent CriminalBackgroundRecords.com press release: http://www.criminalbackgroundrecords.com/news/2016-04-20-Summers-Coming-and-Its-Time-For-Camp.html