On October 17, the Senate approved unanimously legislation (S. 1868) designed to reduce sexual and other abuse of children, the elderly, and the disabled by caregivers and volunteers. The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 23 (see The Source, 5/24/02).
Sponsored by Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE), the National Child Protection and Volunteers for Children Improvement Act would establish an Office for Volunteer and Provider Screening within the Department of Justice (DoJ) to conduct criminal fingerprint and background checks at the request of child care, elder care, and volunteer organizations. Background checks of volunteers would cost $5 and employee background checks would cost up to $18.
Under the bill, states would be encouraged to establish model programs to improve fingerprinting technology and would be eligible for grants of up to $2 million through the DoJ to carry out such programs. Preference would be given to states that have a “qualified state program” as determined by the Attorney General.
The legislation would authorize $100 million in FY2004 and such sums as may be needed in each of FY2005 through FY2008 to establish the clearinghouse office within the DoJ, to defray the costs of providing background checks for volunteers, and to establish and update state programs to use and develop technologies to perform fingerprint checks more quickly.
