It Could Be Your Worst Nightmare
An AmeriCorps member in your program who works with youth has been arrested and convicted of molesting a child enrolled in your after-school recreation program. As the case unfolds, newspaper headlines and TV reports repeatedly link the words “AmeriCorps’’ and “sex offender,” casting a pall on the reputation of your otherwise worthy community efforts.
To make matters worse, the media discovers and reports that your program failed to conduct a criminal background check, a Corporation for National and Community Service (Corporation) requirement for all individuals who receive a living allowance, stipend or education award, or a salary through a program receiving assistance from the Corporation. What’s more, a criminal background check conducted by the media, using readily available law enforcement data, reveals that your AmeriCorps member is a repeat sex offender.
You issue an apology and announce that the member has been dismissed from your program. You promise to tighten your applicant screening procedures. But incalculable damage to your program and its reputation has likely already been done.
All programs are required to abide by myriad regulations under their grants of Federal funds from the Corporation. But there is probably no more important provision than the Corporation requirement for criminal background checks as part of the overall screening process for members and employees.
New Corporation regulations which went into effect on October 1, 2009, as part of the Serve America Act of 2009, require grantees in the AmeriCorps, VISTA, Senior Companion, and Foster Grandparent programs to check their State’s criminal registry and the National Sex Offender Public Registry (NSOPR) maintained by the U.S. Department of Justice, for individuals who enroll as program volunteers or are hired as grant-funded employees on or after October 1, 2009.
Under the regulation, any individuals found to be on the NSOPR, or who have been convicted or murder, or who refuse to consent to a state registry check, are deemed “unsuitable” for a Corporation-funded position. If an individual is found on a State criminal registry, and not the NSOPR, that individual’s eligibility is left for the program to decide, but the regulation requires that grantee program officials document consideration of the background check results prior to selection.
In addition, beginning in late 2011, an FBI fingerprint check will be required for individuals serving with vulnerable populations, including children, handicapped and elderly persons.
Grantees found to have violated this regulation will be denied reimbursements or costs under the grant, restricted or denied eligibility for future grants, and are responsible for reimbursing the Corporation for all education awards, accrued interest awards, salaries and other benefits allocated to participants and grantee staff deemed ineligible due to the lack of a criminal background check. The rule comes from Section 189 D of the Serve America Act and is codified at 45 C.F.R. §§ 2510; 2522, 2540, 2551, and 2552.
A series of program audits conducted by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) have detected a disturbing pattern of non-compliance with criminal background check requirements. In some cases, programs have failed to conduct the checks. Just as disturbing, other programs have failed to retain documentation proving that background checks were conducted for members.
It is OIG audit policy to question all grant costs related to program members and grantee employees for whom there is no documentation of a criminal background check. That includes outlays for living allowances and education awards. But while an audit finding may hit a program in its pocketbook, the OIG’s prime concern is to protect vulnerable populations by mandating strict compliance with criminal background check requirements.
Because laws governing volunteer and employee screening can vary from state to state, grantee program officials should make themselves familiar with these statutes. For example, the Federal Child Protection Act of 1993 gives access to national criminal data, including fingerprint-based information, to “qualified entities,” including nonprofit groups that provide “care, treatment, education, training, instruction, supervision or recreation to children, the elderly, or individuals with disabilities.”
Program officials should also make an inventory of all available criminal databases, ranging from that maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to State and county court records, and make use of as many sources as possible in their screening efforts. Many of these records are accessible to the public, or to designated entities like nonprofits, via the Internet. Programs in States where such data is less accessible should utilize one of a number of private firms that conduct background checks.
Information and training on effective screening and the use of criminal background checks is also available from a number of expert sources, including the Washington, DC-based Nonprofit Risk Management Center (www.nonprofitrisk.org). For example, in their training handbook, Center experts, citing recidivism rates and offender treatment data, note that persons with “any convictions for child sexual abuse, rape or other sexually exploitative offenses constitute an unacceptable level of risk extending throughout an individual’s life.”
The Center also advises its trainees to be wary of certain types of volunteer candidates, including those who have had extensive involvement in youth programs to the exclusion of activities involving persons of their own age level. While not an automatic cause for rejection, the Center’s experts caution that pedophiles and other sex offenders are often drawn to programs and situations where they can stalk their prey.
The Center’s Staff Screening Tool, which offers step-by-step guidance on criminal background checks and related issues, can be downloaded from the Corporation’s Internet site by clicking here.
The Virginia Mentoring Institute (www.mentoring.org/virginia), a nonprofit training group based at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, has also developed a handbook and course on volunteer screening that focuses on risk management. It advises program officials to screen applicants by using a variety of sources, including Department of Motor Vehicles driving records and Virginia State Police registries of convicted nonviolent and violent sex offenders, as well as a Department of Social Services site that lists persons convicted of child abuse and neglect.
BACKGROUND CHECKLIST
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Utilize available national, State and local sources of criminal background information, including DMV driving records and registries of convicted sex offenders, and child and elder abusers.
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Risk Management Center
Center’s Staff Screening Tool
The Virginia Mentoring Institute
What You Should Know -
The OIG Handbook |
