Volunteer Information

The Bethel Park School District strongly encourages the involvement of parents and guardians in our schools.  Pennsylvania State Law (Act 15) now requires that every volunteer who has direct contact with students to have the necessary clearances on file with the District.

 

Below is a list of frequently asked questions about the Volunteer Clearance Process.

 

All volunteers who have direct contact with students are required to have background clearances.  The State's Keep Kids Safe website defines Direct Contact as "the care, supervision, guidance or control of children or routine interaction with children."

 

The Bethel Park School District requires any volunteer who works events/activities such as Field Trips, Classroom Parties, Book Fairs, Music Trips, and Interscholastic Competitions where they are supervising, guiding, controlling, and interacting directly with students to have clearances.

 

All school-sponsored events where parents/grandparents, etc. are attending with their own child, and they are NOT supervising, guiding, or controlling other children, would NOT be required to have clearances.  In these types of events, the parent is attending as an audience member.  Examples include Talent Shows, Special Person's Breakfasts, Dismissal Times, Open Houses, as well as attending events and performances as spectators.

 

If you have direct contact with children you must have all of the clearances, regardless of the number of hours or the frequency of your volunteer participation.

 

Pennsylvania Law requires it and it is the District's duty to uphold the law as well as protect its students.

 

Each clearance request searches a unique database of records.  The PA clearances for child abuse and criminal records are held in two different state databases, while the Federal clearance checks criminal history through a national database.

 

You can usually obtain all three clearances within two weeks after you have submitted everything necessary.  However, we encourage you not to wait until two weeks before your first volunteer event to apply for the clearances, as volunteers across Pennsylvania will be applying for these clearances and there might be a backlog.

 

The District will accept the clearances, provided they are not more than three years old from the date of submission.  The clearances will expire when the oldest of the submitted clearances is more than three years old.

 

You will have to submit updated clearances every five years from the date of your oldest clearance.

 

The new state law permits the District to waive a volunteer's need to obtain the Federal Criminal History Record Check (FBI Fingerprinting) ONLY if certain requirements are met.  Please click here to download the waiver and learn more about the waiver requirements.

 

You will have to complete and sign the Acknowledgment of Volunteer Obligations, declaring that if you are arrested or convicted of a Disqualifying Offense (see list below) or named as a perpetrator in a founded or indicated report, you must provide written notification of this to the District's Superintendent's Office no later than 72 hours after the arrest, conviction or notification.  Please click above to download the Acknowledgement of Volunteer Obligations.

 

The statute makes the failure to disclose information a misdemeanor of the third degree.

 

The Disqualifying Offenses listed in Section 111 of the Pennsylvania School Code include criminal homicide, aggravated assault, stalking, kidnapping, unlawful restraint, luring a child into a motor vehicle or structure, rape, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, institutional sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault, indecent exposure, sexual intercourse with an animal, incest, concealing the death of a child, endangering the welfare of children, dealing in infant children, prostitution, obscene and other sexual materials and performances, corruption of minors, sexual abuse of children, unlawful contact with a minor, solicitation of minors to traffic drugs, sexual exploitation of children and certain drug offenses.

 

 

You should speak with your child's principal, who will be able to qualify whether your participation/attendance is Direct Contact with students.  

 

If paying for the clearances would be a financial hardship for you, please speak to your building principal.  All conversations will be kept confidential.