Volunteers for Children Act HR2488
National Fingerprint
Criminal History Background Checks
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| To conduct fingerprint-based national FBI criminal history background checks, link here for a full listing of state contacts. This list of contacts for every state, including information on prices and other details, is kindly provided by the State of Wisconsin, Department of Justice.
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Congressional Bill: HR 2488
Introduced September 18, 1997
and signed by President Clinton, October, 1998.
A great victory for our children.
Who’s Watching Our Children?
1998 Volunteers for Children Act
Amendment to the 1993 National Child Protection Act
On October 9, 1998, the Volunteers for Children Act was signed into law by President Clinton as Public Law 105-251, amending the National Child Protection Act of 1993.
Because of this important amendment, specified organizations and businesses may now use national fingerprint-based criminal history checks to screen out volunteers and employees with relevant criminal records. This includes any business or organization that provides care, treatment, education, training, instruction, supervision, or recreation for children, the elderly, or individuals with disabilities, — whether public, private, for-profit, not-for-profit, or voluntary.
With this amendment, if a volunteer or employee of an organization sexually molests a child in his or her care and if it can be shown that this volunteer or employee had previously been convicted of a relevant crime (in the US), that organization may be held liable for negligent hiring.
If a current or potential volunteer or employee has a relevant criminal history, he or she must be prevented from having unsupervised access to children, the elderly, or the disabled. Such a person must not be placed in a position where he or she may victimize again. It is imperative that every authorized organization, particularly those who deal with children, immediately start requiring fingerprint-based criminal history checks.