President Obama Extends FBI Background Checks for Volunteers

President Obama Extends FBI Background Checks for Volunteers

December 30, 2010: President Obama recently signed legislation from the U.S. House and Senate to extend the Child Safety Pilot Program, known to mentoring programs as SafetyNET, through the end of 2011.
This pilot program has been extended three times as Congressional debate around the proposed Child Protection Improvements Act continues. MENTOR and other youth-serving organizations have advocated for passage of the House bill (HR 1469), sponsored by Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif., Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and John Conyers, Jr., D-Mich., and the Senate corollary (S 1598), introduced by Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., with leadership from Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, which create a permanent program to provide national background checks for potential volunteers and employees working at youth-serving organizations.
SafetyNET allows organizations working with children to request fingerprint background checks for potential volunteers, using the FBI's nationwide fingerprint database. Of the more than 90,000 background checks performed through the pilot program, 6 percent revealed applicants with a criminal history of concern. Additional advantages to SafetyNET include its low cost, quicker turn-around and ability to identify potentially harmful applicants even if they have moved from one state to another.
"We are grateful that Congress has extended the Child Safety Pilot Program through 2011, and we will continue to work with members of Congress toward a permanent solution," said MENTOR President and CEO Dr. Larry Wright. "Keeping children safe is at the heart of providing quality mentoring that can help them succeed in life."
For more information about SafetyNET or to join MENTOR's advocacy network, visit www.mentoring.org/advocate.