This timely article is 1 of 5 being re-run in light of the Penn State sex scandal!

By John Sadler

Part I – Sexual Offender Registry Checks

This is Part I of a 4 part series about the types of background checks and their importance when using volunteers. An authority in the field of sport insurance, John discusses four types of background checks: 1) sexual offender registry checks, 2) local law enforcement criminal background checks, 3) 3^rd party vendor checks, and 4) FBI checks.

Every reasonable effort should be made to protect youth sports participants from adults in the program who have a history of unacceptable criminal activity. It is estimated that 9.6% of all volunteers screened have a criminal record and 2.9% of would be coaches have had convictions involving sex offenses, violence, or other felonies. (Source: Southeastern Security Consultants, Inc.) For starters, volunteer screening including background checks is a critical part of an effective abuse & molestation risk management plan.

Background checks on volunteers, (as well as paid staff), especially those with repeated access to youth players, are an important part of the volunteer screening program in youth sports. All volunteers should be notified prior to acceptance of their duties that they will be subject to a favorable background check and must provide their consent via a Volunteer Application. Such notification should also explain the steps that are being taken to safeguard their privacy and rights should any unfavorable information be found. Only one league administrator should be in charge of collecting and reviewing Volunteer Applications, receiving the results of the background checks, and making the disqualification decisions in order to reduce the chances of a release of confidential information. An unfavorable background check should disqualify a volunteer from participation if it falls within a sports organization’s predetermined, written disqualification criteria.

The term “background check” represents a broad category of different types of checks that range from the most basic Sexual Offender Registries to the more complicated FBI 10 Point Fingerprint Check. Background checks from different sources vary by the following criteria:

• Cost – Ranges from free to $70 (depending on accuracy and thoroughness) per volunteer to be checked.
• Geographic Region Searched – Varies by county, state, or national database.
• Accuracy And Thoroughness – Varies greatly depending on the input procedure of the source, how often the source is updated, if the source is the most likely one to yield results for a particular volunteer based on his/her address history, the number of sources that are checked, if the social security number is verified, and if an address trace is performed.
• Waiting Period To Receive Results – Varies from immediate to an 84-day waiting period to view results.
• Your Administrative Time Required Per Volunteer – Varies from thirty seconds to several minutes per volunteer record to be checked. This does not include the additional time to interpret raw court data.
• All Criminal Records Checked? – Some sources may not reveal all types of criminal records as some are limited to sexual crimes only.
• Your Legal Liabilities For Mistakes Made – Varies depending on the services that are outsourced to a background check provider. Liabilities can result from mismatch between volunteer and record received, improper interpretation of record, Fair Credit Reporting Act violations for failure to provide required legal notices, illegal use of information protected by First Offender Act, and by slander actions resulting from inappropriate release of confidential information. Even though these potential liabilities exist, the absence of any reasonable attempt to screen unsuitable volunteers presents a far more serious vulnerability to legal liability.

To follow is a basic description of the characteristics and strengths/weaknesses of the most common types of background checks ranging from the least accurate and thorough to the most accurate and thorough.

Sexual Offender Registry Checks (SOR)
Every reasonable effort should be made to protect youth sports participants from adults in the program who have a history of unacceptable criminal activity. It is estimated that 9.6% of all volunteers screened have a criminal record and 2.9% of would be coaches have had convictions involving sex offenses, violence, or other felonies. (Source: Southeastern Security Consultants, Inc.) For starters, volunteer screening including background checks is a critical part of an effective abuse & molestation risk management plan.

Background checks on volunteers, (as well as paid staff), especially those with repeated access to youth players, are an important part of the volunteer screening program in youth sports. All volunteers should be notified prior to acceptance of their duties that they will be subject to a favorable background check and must provide their consent via a Volunteer Application. Such notification should also explain the steps that are being taken to safeguard their privacy and rights should any unfavorable information be found. Only one league administrator should be in charge of collecting and reviewing Volunteer Applications, receiving the results of the background checks, and making the disqualification decisions in order to reduce the chances of a release of confidential information. An unfavorable background check should disqualify a volunteer from participation if it falls within a sports organization’s predetermined, written disqualification criteria.

The term “background check” represents a broad category of different types of checks that range from the most basic Sexual Offender Registries to the more complicated FBI 10 Point Fingerprint Check. Background checks from different sources vary by the following criteria:

• Cost – Ranges from free to $70 (depending on accuracy and thoroughness) per volunteer to be checked.
• Geographic Region Searched – Varies by county, state, or national database.
• Accuracy And Thoroughness – Varies greatly depending on the input procedure of the source, how often the source is updated, if the source is the most likely one to yield results for a particular volunteer based on his/her address history, the number of sources that are checked, if the social security number is verified, and if an address trace is performed.
• Waiting Period To Receive Results – Varies from immediate to an 84-day waiting period to view results.
• Your Administrative Time Required Per Volunteer – Varies from thirty seconds to several minutes per volunteer record to be checked. This does not include the additional time to interpret raw court data.
• All Criminal Records Checked? – Some sources may not reveal all types of criminal records as some are limited to sexual crimes only.
• Your Legal Liabilities For Mistakes Made – Varies depending on the services that are outsourced to a background check provider. Liabilities can result from mismatch between volunteer and record received, improper interpretation of record, Fair Credit Reporting Act violations for failure to provide required legal notices, illegal use of information protected by First Offender Act, and by slander actions resulting from inappropriate release of confidential information. Even though these potential liabilities exist, the absence of any reasonable attempt to screen unsuitable volunteers presents a far more serious vulnerability to legal liability.

To follow is a basic description of the characteristics and strengths/weaknesses of the most common types of background checks ranging from the least accurate and thorough to the most accurate and thorough.

SOR checks are currently available for free on the internet on state government websites in 43 states. There are even some free websites that combine the results that are reported from all of the states that post free results.

The advantages of SOR’s are that they are free, do not require permission from the volunteer, take very little administrative time to input names, the results are immediate, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act and related administrative notice burdens do not apply.

The disadvantages of SOR’s are that the geographic territory is limited to a single state (unless a website is accessed that combines SOR records from all states), there is no Social Security Number verification to assure the volunteer has not provided an alias, the input source is a third party (instead of being input automatically as a part of the judicial process), the websites may not be frequently updated, and SOR’s only reveal sex crimes but not all criminal offenses.

Each state determines its own definition of what constitutes a sex offender. As a result, some states only list high-risk sex offenders. SOR’s rely on a third party to input the information and recent media accounts indicate that SOR’s in some states are more than 50% incomplete. SOR information only goes back to the mid 1990’s in most states. SOR’s will never indicate other serious criminal history such as murder, armed robbery, etc.

On the other hand, criminal background checks (as opposed to SOR’s) will provide all misdemeanor and felony information (not just sex offenses) that a sports organization may want to take into account in the disqualification process. Criminal background checks show offenses that go back a minimum of 7 years, but much longer in most cases. Also, criminal background checks do not rely on third parties to enter information into the database as this happens automatically as part of the judicial process.

John Sadler is president of Sadler & Company, Inc., an insurance agency that specializes in sports and recreation insurance in all 50 states. Sadler has over 25 years of experience and is a licensed attorney, sports insurance expert, and sports risk manager. For more information on sports insurance and sports risk management, visit www.sadlersports.com and click on the links to the blog and risk management reports/forms/videos.

Photo Credit: Jp Corkery