Legislative
Alert #1
April 2003
Background Checks for Child Safety!
NCYS
COALITION ADVOCATES CONGRESS TO
SUPPORT BACKGROUND CHECKS…PLUS!
Child safety legislation for reliable
and rapid background checks with
one national database that is federally
funded is NCYS' advocacy goal.
On
behalf of the 52 million participants
in organized youth sports, the National
Council of Youth Sports (NCYS) is
working diligently with the federal
government for an identical House
and Senate bill with President Bush's
signature securing a meaningful,
sound and effective piece of legislation!
Given the fact that some youngsters
play more than one sport -- that's
actually 38 million boys and girls
partaking in NCYS member programs
and that's A LOT of political influence!
The
National Council of Youth Sports
(NCYS) is leading the way organizing
our nation's major youth serving
organizations to expand the National
Child Protection Act and Volunteers
for Children Improvement Act of
2002. Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE)
and U.S. House of Representative
Mark Foley (R-FL) originally introduced
the bill.
The
following are the "plus" amendments
to the National Child Protection
Act and Volunteers for Children
Improvement Act of 2002 as proposed
by the National Council of Youth
Sports.
AMENDMENTS:
1. Protect children from abuse or
injury by providing a means for
program administrators and designated
background check committees of not-for-profit
youth-serving organizations to have
access to comprehensive, reliable,
rapid and free reports concerning
criminal arrests, indictments and/or
convictions of any person who has
executed a written waiver and is
or seeks to have significant contact
with minors so that they can make
informed screening decisions.
2. Provide civil immunity (or in
the alternative an affirmative defense)
to nonprofit organizations that
can demonstrate that they obtained
the background information provided
in a reasonable and prudent fashion
and relied on it as a complete report
of criminal arrests, indictments
and/or convictions.
ORGANIZATIONS
COVERED:
Comprehensive criminal background
information shall be provided to
nonprofit corporations and entities
of federal, state or local governments.
INDIVIDUALS
COVERED:
Background information shall be
made available for volunteers as
well as paid staff provided written
waivers are obtained.
COMPREHENSIVE
INFORMATION:
Information included in the background
reports shall include the same information
concerning arrests, indictments
and convictions as would be provided
to a law enforcement agency seeking
a criminal record.
RELIABLE
INFORMATION:
Agencies providing such information
shall be required to establish and
employ policies and procedures to
assure that the information is current
and complete and includes arrests,
indictments or convictions within
any federal, state or county jurisdiction
in the United States.
RAPID
INFORMATION:
The information sought shall be
available within 48 hours of request.
FREE
REPORTS:
In order to assure the maximum protection
of children and to avoid erecting
any barriers to the use of this
information, the reports shall be
provided to the youth organization
at no charge.
REGULATIONS CONCERNING THE
USE OF INFORMATION:
Background information provided
under this Act must be handled in
a manner that respects the privacy
of individuals and the information
may only be used or disclosed for
purposes of making screening decisions
for people who wish to have contact
with minors. Organizations and individuals
shall be liable for malicious or
negligent use of the information
outside the scope of this Act.
WAIVERS
REQUIRED:
Youth-serving organizations who
seek to avail themselves of the
information available under this
Act shall be required to obtain
written waivers from any person
whose background information is
being sought.
PROCEDURES
& STAFF:
The Attorney General shall establish
whatever procedures and maintain
and train whatever staff is necessary
to efficiently and effectively implement
the provisions of this Act.
IDENTIFICATION PROCEDURES:
To facilitate the accomplishment
of the purposes of this Act, the
Attorney General shall work with
national, regional and local youth-serving
organizations to identify appropriate
technologies and assist them in
gaining access to mobile inkless
digital fingerprinting equipment
and trained personnel to permit
the efficient acquisition of fingerprints
as part of the criminal background
check.
IMMUNITY:
Though nonprofit youth-serving organizations
will occasionally have access to other
background information that can and
should be considered, given the limited
resources of and severe time constraints
associated with the selection of coaches,
teachers, mentors, administrators
and others who work with children
in their programs, organizations that
do acquire background information
pursuant to this Act should be able
to rely on the information as being
complete and accurate. Therefore,
the Act should provide protection
to organizations that make good faith
diligent efforts to discover relevant
information as part of the screening
process seeking to eliminate unacceptable
risks of injury or abuse to children.
Organizations that obtain this information
and use it in a reasonable and prudent
manner should be able to rely on these
background checks. This can be done
either by an immunity clause or by
creating an affirmative defense.
