I
106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4244
To establish a national center on volunteer screening to reduce sexual and
other abuse of children.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 11, 2000
Mr. LEWIS of Georgia (for himself, Mr. DAVIS of Virginia, and Ms. JACKSON-
LEE of Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Education and the Workforce, and in addition to the Com-
mittee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by
the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall with-
in the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To establish a national center on volunteer screening to
reduce sexual and other abuse of children.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Child Protec-
tion Volunteer Screening Assistance Act of 2000’’.
SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL CENTER ON VOL-
UNTEER SCREENING.
The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act
of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5601 et seq.) is amended by adding
at the end the following:
‘‘TITLE VI—NATIONAL CENTER
ON VOLUNTEER SCREENING
‘‘SEC. 601. SHORT TITLE.
‘‘This title may be cited as the ‘National Child Pro-
tection Volunteer Screening Assistance Act’.
‘‘SEC. 602. FINDINGS.
‘‘Congress finds the following:
‘‘(1) More than 87,000,000 children are in-
volved each year in activities provided by child and
youth organizations which depend heavily on volun-
teers to deliver services through such activities.
‘‘(2) The vast majority of activities provided to
children by public and nonprofit private agencies
and organizations result in the delivery of much
needed services in safe environments that could not
be provided without the assistance of virtually mil-
lions of volunteers, but abuses of children do occur.
‘‘(3) Estimates of the incidence of child sexual
abuse in child care settings, foster care homes, and
schools range from 1 to 7 percent.
‘‘(4) Although the incidence of child abuse may
be relatively small, abuse traumatizes the victims
and shakes public trust in care providers and organi-
zations serving vulnerable populations.
‘‘(5) Congress addressed concerns about this
type of abuse by enacting the National Child Protec-
tion Act of 1993 and the Violent Crime Control Act
of 1994, to set forth a framework through which
States could authorize screening through criminal
record checks of care providers, including volunteers
who work with children, the elderly, and individuals
with disabilities, but problems regarding the safety
of children remain.
‘‘(6) While State screening alone is sometimes
adequate to conduct volunteer background checks,
more extensive national criminal history checks
using fingerprints are often advisable, especially
when a prospective volunteer may have lived in more
than 1 State.
‘‘(7) The high cost for fingerprint background
checks is unaffordable for organizations that use a
large number of volunteers and, if such cost is
passed on to volunteers, often discourages their par-
ticipation.
‘‘(8) The current system of retrieving national
criminal background information on volunteers
through an authorized agency of the State is cum-
bersome and often requires months before vital re-
sults are returned.
‘‘(9) In order to protect children, volunteer
agencies must currently depend on a convoluted, dis-
connected, and sometimes duplicative series of
checks that leave children at risk.
‘‘(10) A national volunteer screening center is
needed to protect children by providing effective, ef-
ficient, and no-cost national criminal history back-
ground checks of volunteers who provide care
through public and nonprofit private agencies and
organizations.
‘‘SEC. 603. DEFINITIONS.
‘‘For purposes of this title:
‘‘(1) PUBLIC OR NONPROFIT PRIVATE QUALI-
FIED ENTITY.—The term ‘public or nonprofit private
qualified entity’ means an agency or organization,
whether public or nonprofit, that provides care
placement services, including an organization that li-
censes or certifies others to provide care placement
services.
‘‘(2) VOLUNTEER PROVIDER.—The term ‘volun-
teer provider’ means an individual who provides or
seeks to provide services as a volunteer to a public
or nonprofit private qualified entity.
‘‘(3) NATIONAL CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK
SYSTEM.—The term ‘national criminal background
check system’ means the criminal history record sys-
tem maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investiga-
tion based on fingerprint identification or any other
method of positive identification.
‘‘(4) CHILD.—The term ‘child’ has the meaning
given such term in section 5(2) of the Child Protec-
tion Act of 1993.
‘‘(5) STATE.—The term ‘State’ has the mean-
ing given such term in section 5(11) of the Child
Protection Act of 1993.
‘‘SEC. 604. ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL CENTER FOR
VOLUNTEER SCREENING.
‘‘The Attorney General, by making a grant to or a
contract with a public agency or a nonprofit national orga-
nization, shall—
‘‘(1) establish a national center for volunteer
screening designed—
‘‘(A) to serve as a point of contact for pub-
lic and nonprofit private qualified entities to re-
quest a nationwide background check for the
purpose of determining whether a volunteer
provider has been convicted of a crime that
bears upon the provider’s fitness to have re-
sponsibilities for the safety and well-being of
children;
‘‘(B) to access and to review, either di-
rectly or indirectly, State and Federal criminal
history records and registries through the na-
tional criminal history background check sys-
tem, and any other appropriate system of crimi-
nal history information at no cost to the public
or nonprofit private qualified entity or to the
volunteer provider, on an expedited basis under
guidelines conforming to section 3(b) of the
Child Protection Act of 1993;
‘‘(C) to provide criminal background check
results to the public or nonprofit private quali-
fied entity requesting a nationwide background
within no more than 15 business days; and
‘‘(D) to serve as a national resource center
and clearinghouse to provide State and local
governments, public and nonprofit private agen-
cies, and individuals with information regarding
volunteer screening; and
‘‘(2) establish a National Volunteer Screening
Task Force to be chaired by the Attorney General,
which shall—
‘‘(A) be composed of—
‘‘(i) 2 employees of the Department of
Justice appointed by the Attorney General;
‘‘(ii) 2 employees of the Department
of Health and Human Services appointed
by the Secretary of Health and Human
Services;
‘‘(iii) 2 employees of the Federal Bu-
reau of Investigation appointed by the Di-
rector of the Federal Bureau of Investiga-
tion; and
‘‘(iv) 6 members of national organiza-
tions that represent nonprofit private
qualified entities that use volunteer pro-
viders to serve children; and
‘‘(B) oversee the work of the national cen-
ter for volunteer screening and report at least
annually to the President and the Congress
with regard to the work of such center for vol-
unteer screening and the progress of the States
in complying with the Child Protection Act of
1993.
‘‘SEC. 605. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
‘‘There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out
this title $80,000,000 for fiscal year 2001 and such sums
as may be necessary for fiscal years 2002, 2003, 2004,
and 2005.’’.
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