WASHINGTON, DC – Last week, 3 prominent Senators introduced legislation that would allow youth-serving organizations to run FBI Background checks on prospective volunteers. Senators Joseph Biden (D-DE), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Arlen Specter (R-PA), introduced the Child Protection Improvements Act of 2008 (S.2756), to expand and make permanent a national child safety protection pilot program established in 2003. The Act permits the criminal records of prospective volunteers to be analyzed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), who then determine whether those individuals are suitable to work with children.
“If it weren’t for the millions of adults volunteering to work with our nation’s youth, we wouldn’t have organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters, and the Boys and Girls Club of America.” said Bruce Lesley, President of First Focus. “While most individuals who give of their time to work with children do so with good intentions, we’ve got to do everything we can to keep those with dangerous motives away. This legislation will ensure the safety of our children by providing youth-serving organizations with a reliable way of screening volunteers.”
The pilot program has been successful, as 6.1 percent of the 37,000 background checks preformed identified individuals with criminal backgrounds that rendered them unfit to work with children. Unfit applicants had a variety of convictions, including sexual crimes against children, and almost 40 percent had moved across state lines with the hope of leaving their criminal records behind. The pilot program is set to expire on July 30, 2008,
In order to increase the effectiveness demonstrated by the pilot program, the Act addresses several factors that restricted the pilot program’s success, such as the limited number of youth-serving organizations allowed to access the system. The legislation will open the background check program to more organizations, and will provide a steady stream of resources to allow the program to grow toward the goal of protecting all children.
In addition, the Child Protection Improvements Act of 2008 will create an applicant processing center (APC) to assist youth-serving organizations with administrative tasks related to accessing the system, including collection of fingerprints and fees.
First Focus has joined a wide cross-section of youth-serving, nonprofit organizations in endorsing the bill. these organizations include Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the Boys and Girls Club of America, MENTOR/The National Mentoring Partnership, the YMCA of the USA, as well as NCMEC.