Prince George’s County Public Schools is bringing screening services to sites throughout the community during the next two months to make it easier for volunteers to get background checks.
On Jan. 2, Superintendent John Deasy implemented a new policy that subjects more school volunteers to background checks.
“At the moment, if you want to get your background checks done, you’d have to go to Upper Marlboro, where our administration headquarters is,” schools spokesman John White told The Examiner on Monday. “Obviously we have a very large county, so we are reaching out to every region of the county to make this easier for volunteers.”
Commercial and full fingerprint background checks are available from noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday at High Point High School; March 7 at Charles Carroll Middle School; Feb. 14 and March 14 at Frederick Douglass High School; Feb. 21 and March 21 at Lake Arbor Elementary School; Feb. 26 and March 26 at Eleanor Roosevelt High School; and Feb. 28 and March 28 at Oxon Hill Staff Development Center.
“If you are a parent and you are volunteering in a school in College Park, it’s not convenient to come out to Upper Marlboro,” White said. “We are trying to go out to those areas that are far away from the administration building.”
Under the new policy, “any volunteers working with children where uncontrolled access is anticipated … are required to complete a full fingerprint background check at a one-time cost of $66,” Deasy explained in a Jan. 2 letter.
Volunteers who work in a classroom on an ongoing basis or who chaperone a field trip — capacities where no uncontrolled access is anticipated — are subject to a commercial background check through the school system at an $8 annual fee.
White said the school system is also exploring ways to cover the cost of the screenings for seniors.
Volunteers working in the schools on a one-time or sporadic basis without uncontrolled access do not need background checks.
