Which Background Check Level Should Your Organization Run, and How Often?

When conducting Background Checks, it is essential to take into account the applicant’s level of trust and access to children, students or vulnerable populations. 

THERE IS NO ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL BACKGROUND CHECK; if your organization is running all employees and volunteers through the same level of Background Check, it is likely you are not meeting current legal standards of care.

Be prepared to run a deeper level of check for individuals about whom you CANNOT afford to be wrong, whether serving as staff members or volunteers. 

The level of Background Check ordered is impacted by the state or municipality in which your organization is located, as well as the level and degree of trust and access to children attributable to an applicant or position.

Higher Level Background Checks

For some roles, a deeper search is necessary, particularly positions where the employee or volunteer may be entrusted with caring for a child, student or vulnerable adult. 

Positions that typically require a more intensive search include staff members participating in overnight events or who are likely to have direct involvement with children, students or vulnerable adults, as well as personnel subject to less direct supervision.

In high-trust, high-access roles, Continuous Monitoring should be considered.

Lower Level Background Checks

For some roles, a less intensive search may be appropriate, such as volunteer roles not directly child-serving, or with no interaction with children, students or vulnerable adults.

A more intensive Background Check is always good practice where organizational resources allow. Background Checks have become a legal standard of care, but cannot be relied upon as a silver bullet or an organization’s stand-alone Safety System.

Refreshing Background Checks

Every organization must periodically refresh or re-run Background Checks to update records for all paid staff and child-serving volunteers; current standard of care in most states is to refresh every 1 to 3 years. The Abuse Prevention Systems Control Panel includes an easy opt-in feature that automatically refreshes Background Checks every 2 years.