A background check is one of the most important processes your church needs to have. It guarantees the safety of your congregation and of the children in your church. Whether you’re hiring a new staff member or having new volunteers on board, a background check is a must.
It’s important to maintain your church’s reputation and hire safe employees. Not only churches but typically all businesses will require a background check when looking to hire. There are a few different services that offer these types of checks that we’ll discuss below!
Estimated reading time: 12 minutes
Table of contents
- What is a Background Check?
- Why Perform a Background Check?
- How often should churches do background checks?
- How far back do church background checks go?
- What Does a Church Background Check Show?
- Why is it important to conduct background checks for churches?
- Background Check Providers
- Important Background Check Information
- More Resources on Background Checks
What is a Background Check?
A background check is a “record” screening of an individual, which can be as little as a one-county check or as in-depth as a Security clearance investigation. Public and private records can be searched once applicant consent is given. Criminal records will appear in a background check, and this is very important for faith-based organizations when looking to hire anyone or take on volunteers.
Why Perform a Background Check?
Background screening requests can be made directly on the CIA website or through an integration with your church management software. The background check process is easy with their electronic consent forms allowing you to initiate a background check with only your candidate’s email address.CIA’s compliance department reviews and verifies all results to ensure they comply with federal and state laws before they are sent back to you. The national criminal database is accessed this way and only this way. Their goal is to provide you with comprehensive and reliable screening services, along with outstanding customer service.
- Easy online registration
- No application or setup fees
- No monthly or annual fees
- Only pay for the background checks you order
A ministry that serves children and youth needs to exercise “due diligence” with regard to protecting its members, especially the children. By performing background checks on our volunteers your ministry is…
- Putting up a safeguard at the doorway of the organization that will, in most cases, scare off sexual predators.
- Offering peace of mind to parents when choosing a church, by knowing your ministry is pro-active in protecting the children.
How often should churches do background checks?
There are no federal or state laws requiring re-screening of church employees and volunteers after an initial background check. You should note, however, that federal and state legal requirements may apply for certain positions, such as volunteers working with children or the elderly. Your organization may also have its own guidelines.
In general, experts advise performing new background checks on employees and volunteers every two to five years.
How far back do church background checks go?
In general, there are no laws restricting how far back ministry background checks can go. Lookback periods for church background checks depend on the type and scope of the search, whether you are using a CRA to conduct the search or searching on your own, and any applicable federal or state laws.
Background checks done through a CRA, like Checkr, must follow the regulations of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The FCRA restricts non-conviction information reported by a CRA to a 7-year lookback period which includes arrests, civil judgments, tax liens, and most credit report information. It excludes bankruptcies, which may be reported for up to 10 years and criminal convictions, which may be reported indefinitely.
If a candidate’s expected salary is $75,000 or higher or if searches are conducted by the employer themselves, these limitations may not apply. The FCRA look-back restrictions also do not apply to employment history, and education verification.
What Does a Church Background Check Show?
The results of a church background check will depend on the type and scope of the screening process required by the organization, which may vary. A comprehensive background screening may include several searches, such as:
- Criminal background checks for church volunteers and employees may search national and state criminal databases, sex offender registries, and county courthouse records. The criminal history check typically shows felony and misdemeanor convictions, and may also show lesser infractions, but this can vary based on state and local laws.
- Education verification confirms the dates the candidate attended school, the degree earned, and the major.
- Employment verifications confirm former employment and may show past job titles and employment dates.
- Motor vehicle reports (MVRs) show a person’s driving history. This typically includes the status of the driver’s license, the class of license held, and traffic violations. It may also include DUI convictions depending on the jurisdiction.
- Reference checks contact professional references to ask questions about a candidate’s character, job performance, and strengths and weaknesses.
Why is it important to conduct background checks for churches?
Background checks for church workers and volunteers help safeguard your faith community’s members from potential threats, mitigate liability risk, and ensure that employees and volunteers have the necessary qualifications for success in their roles. Insurance carriers may require background screenings as a condition of issuing coverage such as sexual conduct liability insurance, directors’ and officers’ insurance, religious counseling services liability insurance, or commercial auto insurance.
- Whether background checks for church volunteers are required by law depends on a variety of factors, including state law, the duties of the position, and whether the person is an employee or volunteer. Background checks may be legally required if the individual will be working with vulnerable populations, such as children or seniors.
- For example, California Bus. & Prof. Code §18975 requires youth service groups, including churches, to obtain fingerprints and conduct background checks of employees and volunteers to identify people with a record of child abuse.
- Pennsylvania law requires employees working directly with children to undergo a Pennsylvania child abuse clearance, criminal background check, and FBI background check before beginning employment.
- In some cases, churches may provide childcare services for members of the congregation or the public. Under federal law, all states and territories must ensure that employees and volunteers of licensed childcare programs undergo state and federal criminal background checks. These screenings must include:
- A search of the National Sex Offender Registry
- A national FBI criminal history check, including fingerprints
- A search of the state criminal registry or repository, State sex offender registry or repository, and state-based child abuse and neglect registry and database where the individual lives, as well as any states where they have lived in the past five years.
Background Check Providers
For religious institutions, you have several options for conducting background checks, so take a look at the list we compiled below! You know your church’s needs better than anyone and what kind of platform would best serve you.
Checkr
Other background check services require a lot of time and effort from hiring teams and candidates. Checkr’s streamlined experience and automated workflows dramatically reduce it. Your custom criteria are applied automatically and consistently, reducing adverse action rates by up to 20%. Regulatory compliance is built into Checkr products. Intuitive API let you fully customize the experience of candidates and admins, fitting background checks to the way you work.
- A mobile-first, user-friendly candidate experience
- Automated follow-ups to guide candidates
- Multilingual candidate support
- 100+ integrations connect with the applications you use every day
Shepherd’s Watch
It’s critical to take steps to protect those in your church’s care. Properly screening your staff and volunteers is an important step in that process!
Shepherd’s Watch Background Checks partners with the leading global background check company, First Advantage. Because of their long-term partnership with First Advantage, they’re able to offer you best-in-class background checks at affordable prices.
Group has been serving churches for over 45 years, and they’ve been offering background check services for more than 17 years. You can trust that they know your church’s needs and understand the best ways to protect your church and those you serve.
Quality and affordable background checks starting at $9 from the leading background check company in the world. First Advantage is FCRA compliant and accredited with the PBSA.
- Purchase your Shepherd’s Watch® Lifetime Membership — one-time fee; No annual costs!
- Activate your Shepherd’s Watch® account with the leading global background check company, First Advantage. Once you have purchased your membership, you will receive a confirmation email and instructions on how to set up your account.
- Login to your Shepherd’s Watch Background Check Account and choose from the background check packages below for each person you’re screening. Use the E-Invite permissions form to keep the process confidential and secure. And easily pay with credit card for each background check as you go.
GuideOne
GuideOne has specialized in insuring religious organizations for over 75 years, so they understand the unique risks you face each day. Nothing is more important than ensuring the well–being of those you serve, but creating and maintaining a culture of safety can be challenging without the right tools.
Prior to conducting a background check, written permission must be obtained from the prospective employee or volunteer. Then, local and national organizations that conduct background checks should be contacted. GuideOne is pleased to offer policyholders affordable background checks through its Check & Protect program. By utilizing the Check & Protect program for all your background checks, your church has access to cost effective, easy-to-access, and timely searches.
The Check & Protect program gives you access to many different checks, including multi-state, state criminal, state sexual offender, employment, and motor vehicle checks to name a few. For complete screening information, go to the SafeChurch home page; and click on Background Checks. You will find all the necessary information to access this discounted service.
Once the background check is completed and reviewed on a prospective employee or volunteer, your organization must decide if it is going to hire the applicant or allow him or her to volunteer. If the person has offenses on his or her record, it is up to the organization to decide whether the individual should be hired.
Protect My Ministry
Church background checks through Protect My Ministry are designed to help all ministries implement and maintain a thorough background screening program for employees, staff and volunteers. Preventing sexual predators and violent offenders from working with children and youth is our primary concern.
As the data provided in the many databases searched is not equally maintained and accessed by each state, the universal criteria is difficult to enforce. For that reason, it’s critical that you partner with a credible background screening company like Protect My Ministry.
Choose from cost-friendly background check packages through an intuitive online consultation. Recommendations are based on the quality of data available in each state and industry best practices. At the very minimum the background check should cover Social Security Number Verification, National Criminal Search and Sex Offender Registries Search! Turnaround time on submitted requests is typically same day – 48 hours. The industry standard is 72 hours.
Lifeway One Source
The Lifeway One Source program provides discounted prices on background checks for churches and religious organizations looking to protect their ministries. Screen your staff, volunteers, treasurers, teachers, bus drivers, camp counselors and more!
Through the Lifeway One Source program, churches and religious organizations can receive discounted background screenings through Clear Investigative Advantage (CIA). Their mission is to help you establish a secure environment while delivering accurate results in a timely fashion.
Background screening requests can be made directly on the CIA website, or through an integration with your church management software. The background check process is made easy with their electronic consent forms allowing you to initiate a background check with only your candidates email address.All results are reviewed and verified by CIA’s compliance department to ensure they comply with federal and state laws before they are sent back to you.
Their goal is to provide you with comprehensive and reliable screening services, along with outstanding customer service. Contact us today to learn how CIA can help keep your organization safe.
- Easy online registration
- No application or setup fees
- No monthly or annual fees
- Only pay for the background checks you order
Sterling Volunteers
Sterling Volunteers screening services are designed to fit the unique needs of today’s service sector. They understand that not all nonprofits and service organizations are alike—in mission or structure—so a “one size fits all” volunteer background check won’t work.
Their online platform lets you and your volunteers control the volunteer screening process, making it as simple, fast, and cost-efficient as possible.
Best of all, the straightforward nature of their background checks ensures your volunteers are not inconvenienced in any way. With Sterling Volunteers, you can rest assured you’ll get the right people to work right away.
You and your organization have 24/7 access to their volunteer screening services. Using their standardized screening levels, you can tailor your volunteer screening based on the task your volunteers will be asked to perform as well as the people they’ll be working with.
Important Background Check Information
We hope this was informative and helps you back the best decision when it comes to background checks for your church. The safety of everyone is the priority, and should never be overlooked.
More Resources on Background Checks
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