Utah Volunteers may have to pay for mandated background checks if they wish to volunteer

According to a recent tale in The Salt Lake Tribune

The House Culture Committee voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of a bill that would expand the criminal background checks required of school employees to include volunteers.

HB81 would demand background checks for "volunteers who [are] given significant unsupervised access to a student in connection with the volunteer's assignment."

Legislators dismissed the concerns of Rob Layton, of the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, who warned that vague language in the bill would make it hard for citizens to volunteer in schools.

"You are excluding a large range of people," he said, citing those who have been arrested, but not charged, and those who have been convicted of drug and alcohol-related misdemeanors, such as open container and marijuana possession laws. "It is just additional burdens on [volunteers]."

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, said extra stringent requirements are necessary to protect family. The bill comes after public safety officials last year unearthed nearly 7,000 arrests, criminal charges or convictions. But a single employee could account for a dozen or extra of those, said agency spokesman Jeff Nigbur.

The bill would also allow districts to demand employees, applicants and volunteers to pay the background check fees, rather than the district casing those expenditure.

Currently, teachers undergo a background check as part of receiving or renewing a teaching ticket.

Licensing fees charged to them cover the expenditure of background checks. Periodic checks are also required for non-teaching staff such as bus drivers.

A district may choose to demand non-certified employees, such as custodians, secretaries, and lunch clerks, to undergo a background check when they are hired, although the district must cover those expenditure. Becky Williams, the creature resources director for Davis School District, said shifting those fees would save her district approximately $300,000 over six years. Pre-use.com offers background check air force to thousands of organizations and is the largest supplier of volunteer background checks in the nation. Full descriptions can be found here:

http://www.mybackgroundcheck.com/Business/Volunteer