Gov. Tom Wolf announced Wednesday that fees for child abuse clearances and criminal background checks now required for volunteers who work with children in Pennsylvania will be waived starting July 25.
“Additionally, the Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) will be reducing the cost of both the child abuse and criminal history record checks from $10 to $8 for all other applicants,” the Office of the Governor announced in a news release.
Volunteers who have contact with children will be required to submit to the checks as of July 1 because of Act 153 of 2014, which was signed into law by Wolf’s predecessor, Tom Corbett.
“My action today could not have been accomplished without the hard work of the General Assembly, who has participated in an ongoing bipartisan working group with the Administration in an effort to develop needed clarifications to the Child Protective Services Law,” Wolf said in a statement. “Through that process, the General Assembly expressed concerns of many members about the cost of background clearances, particularly for volunteers. I share those concerns, and that is why I am excited to announce these actions today.”
In his weekly newsletter, state Rep. Justin Simmons (R-131), who represents part of Lower Saucon Township, said the House also voted unanimously to waive the fees for the background checks, which are currently $10 for the DHS child abuse clearance and $10 for the PSP background check.
Volunteers who have not been continuous residents of Pennsylvania for the past 10 years will still need to obtain FBI clearances after July 1, and there is no fee waiver available for those clearances because they are federally administered, the governor’s news release stated.
According to an article published Wednesday by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, volunteers who’ve already applied for the state clearances will not be reimbursed.
The following people will now be required to get the clearances per the news release:
- Child care service employees
- Foster parents and adult household members
- Prospective adoptive parents and adult household members
- Individuals 14 year of age or older applying for a paid position as an employee responsible for the welfare of a child or having direct contact with children
- Any individual seeking or providing child-care services under contract with a child-care facility or program
- School employees governed by public school code and those not governed by the public school code (colleges and universities)
Wolf’s office said that from Jan. 1 to April 30 there were 61,019 clearance applications for volunteers. The projected total number of volunteer clearances for the 2015-2016 fiscal year is 296,836.
More information about clearances required under the Child Protective Services Law can be found at www.keepkidssafe.pa.gov.
Individuals seeking clearances can visit www.compass.state.pa.us/cwis to create an individual account and apply for their child abuse clearance online.
