LEGAL DISCLAIMER
New Law Regarding Fingerprinting of Volunteers: Senate Bill 187: Effective
March 22, 2001
The idea behind this bill is to encourage volunteer-utilizing organizations
to conduct BCII (Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification) fingerprint
checks on their volunteers who work with children, and to let parents have the information
they need about the criminal background of those volunteers to decide whether to
keep their child in that program.
SB 187 does not:
- Give parents the right to request that volunteers be fingerprinted
- Have parents pay for fingerprint checks on volunteers
- Mandate fingerprinting at all
- Provide any funding for fingerprint checks
To whom do the laws made by SB 187 apply? Organizations who use volunteers
who regularly have unsupervised access to a child. Section 109.574 (B) "Unsupervised
access to a child" means that the person in question has access to a child
and that either of the following applies:
(1) No other person eighteen years of age or older is present in the same room
with the child.
(2) If outdoors, no other person eighteen years of age or older is within a
thirty-yard radius of the child or has visual contact with the child.
If you don’t have volunteers with unsupervised access, this doesn’t
apply to you. HOWEVER, be aware that although you may not program for unsupervised
access, there may sometimes be exceptions in your program (e.g. a volunteer tutor
removing a child from a noisy classroom).
If you have volunteers with unsupervised access, there are several things you
need to know, and one that you need to act on right away:
By April 22, 2001, you must notify in writing your volunteers with unsupervised
access to children that they may be fingerprinted. After that, you must notify potential
volunteers when they apply to be a part of your program. This is true whether or
not you actually intend to fingerprint your volunteers. The bill does not tell you
what you must say. Section 109.575
Best Practices Guide
In accordance with the law, the Ohio Community Service Council developed a set of "best practices" for organizations to use when screening volunteers. It is important to note - the Ohio Community Service Council is not a regulatory agency; it does not have the authority to make rules that have the force and effect of law. Consequently, these practices should not be considered rules or law; and courts should not impose liability based upon this document.