A State-by-State Look at Access to Nationwide Criminal Background Checks by Mentoring Organizations

Under the Volunteers for Children Act, mentoring organizations should qualify for nationwide criminal record checks on volunteers as they provide care to children. Since the goal of mentoring is to develop a close relationship between an adult and a young person, many programs allow mentors and young people to meet one-on-one, without supervision. That is why the volunteer screening process and criminal record checks are crucial for mentoring organizations.

MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership conducted an informal survey of each state in May 2007 to determine the extent of the problems that mentoring organizations face when attempting to get nationwide criminal background checks on their volunteers. MENTOR contacted the agencies charged with performing these criminal record checks in each state and the District to inquire about how a mentoring organization would be able to access a statewide record check and a national record check. This informal survey was not intended to be a complete picture of the background check system for all youth-serving organizations; rather it was an examination of the situation specifically for mentoring organizations.

The results of these calls are striking. Only eighteen states allowed mentoring organizations to have access to FBI background checks as envisioned by the National Child Protection Act and the Volunteers for Children Act. Of those eighteen, six were charging more than the $36 FBI standard for volunteers, and five had response times longer than four weeks.

Thirty-two states and the District either do not allow mentoring organizations to access FBI checks. This could be because the state does not have a system for performing any FBI searches for the public, or it could be that the types of organizations eligible for FBI searches do not include youth-serving organizations. Nine of these states charged more than $18 for the statewide record checks that mentoring organizations must rely on if denied access to an FBI check. The following chart categorizes each of the states, and notes any special situations in those states.

States That Do Not Provide Mentoring Organizations with Access to FBI Criminal Checks (33):

Cost of State check and turnaround time (if available) provided in parentheses

Alaska ($35 for state fingerprint check; 3 weeks)
Arkansas ($20 for state name search; 2 weeks)
Connecticut ($25 for state name or fingerprint search; 2 weeks)
District of Columbia (district-wide name searches are free; instantaneous)
Delaware ($25 for state fingerprint search; 2 weeks)
Georgia (up to $20 for state search; turnaround time varies by locality)
Hawaii ($13 for state name search, $20 for state fingerprint search)
Idaho ($10 for state name or fingerprint search)
Illinois ($16 for state name search, $20 for state fingerprint search; 3 weeks)
Indiana ($15 for online state name search; 1 day)
Kansas ($12.50 for online state name search, $20 for state fingerprint search; instantaneous for online, 2 weeks for fingerprint search)
Kentucky ($10 for state name search; 4 weeks)
Maine ($25 for state name or fingerprint search)
Massachusetts ($15 for state name search, with fee waiver for some youth-serving volunteer organizations; 3 weeks)
Michigan (online state name searches are free to youth-serving nonprofits)
Minnesota ($8 for state name search; 2 weeks)
Mississippi (Organizations can only access county-level checks, not statewide checks)
Missouri ($10 for state name search, $20 for state fingerprint search; 6 weeks)
Montana ($10 for state name search or fingerprint search accessing repositories for 7 Western states)
Nebraska ($15 for state name search)
Nevada ($21 for state fingerprint search; 4 weeks)
New Hampshire ($7.50 for state name search; 3 weeks)
New Mexico ($7 for state name search; 3 weeks)
New York ($50 for state name search; $75 for state fingerprint search)
North Carolina (Organizations can only access county-level name checks, not statewide checks)
North Dakota ($15 for state name search; 2 weeks)
Oklahoma ($15 for state name search, $19 for state fingerprint search; 3 weeks)
Pennsylvania ($10 for state name check; 2 weeks)
Rhode Island ($5 for state name check; 1 week)
South Carolina ($8 for online state name check; instantaneous)
South Dakota ($20 for state fingerprint check; 1 week)
Texas ($4.25 for online state name check; instantaneous)
Washington ($10 for online state name search, $30 for state fingerprint search; instantaneous for online name search, 3 weeks for fingerprint search)

States That Allow Access to FBI Checks for Mentoring Organizations (18):

Cost of FBI check and turnaround time (if available) provided in parentheses

Alabama (State check free; charges $49 for FBI check)
Arizona ($46 for FBI check; 4-8 weeks)
California ($18 for FBI check [waives state fee of $32 for nonprofits; schools must pay this fee however]; 1 week)
Colorado ($16.50 for FBI check just for youth mentoring organizations)
Florida ($36 for FBI check of volunteers, $47 for employees; 3 weeks)
Iowa ($23 for FBI check of volunteers, $37 for employees; 3 weeks)
Louisiana ($50 for FBI check; 8 weeks)
Maryland ($36 for FBI check; 6 weeks)
New Jersey ($36 for FBI check of volunteers, $54 for employees)
Ohio ($33 for FBI check)
Oregon (standard fee is $30, although it is waived for registered mentoring organizations)
Tennessee ($44 for FBI check of volunteers, $56 for employees; 1 week)
Utah ($33 for FBI check of volunteers, $39 for employees; 4 weeks)
Vermont ($39 for FBI check of volunteers, $49 for employees; 6 weeks)
Virginia ($26 for FBI check of volunteers, $37 for employees)
West Virginia ($44 for FBI check)
Wisconsin ($33 for FBI check of volunteers, $39 for employees; 3 weeks)
Wyoming ($28 for FBI check of volunteers, $33 for employees; 6 weeks)

Take Action - Background Checks

A State-by-State Look at Access to Nationwide Criminal Background Checks by Mentoring Organizations

States That Do Not Provide Mentoring Organizations with Access to FBI Criminal Checks (33):

States That Allow Access to FBI Checks for Mentoring Organizations (18):