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 In
The News
The veriFYI
program is unique in many ways. It's a program
that is capturing the attention of many nonprofit
agencies, not only in Texas, but nationwide.
This page contains articles written about our
program.
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Reprinted with permission of
the Dallas Morning News
OP-ED: Julie Thomas: Protect Texas
children
Volunteer Center goes beyond conviction checks
08:25 AM CDT on Thursday, August
3, 2006
The owner of a Pleasant Grove
day-care center has been charged in the heatstroke
death of 4-year-old Jacob Fox. Blynithia Washington
had a criminal record that should have kept her
from working with children, but the background
check conducted by the Texas Department of Family
and Protective Services didn't reveal her
convictions.
Clearly, the check was inadequate.
Unfortunately, many Texas nonprofit and faith-based
organizations face a similar situation without
realizing it. They are conducting checks on their
staff and volunteers and mistakenly believe they
are demonstrating due diligence. Liability
insurance often requires them to conduct such
checks, but the fact is that not all criminal
background checks are equal.
Always driven by efforts to economize, many
nonprofits think that checking convictions alone is
adequate. That is a quick and easy approach, but
it's also often inadequate.
In 1994, the Volunteer Center of North Texas began
to provide nonprofits with thorough criminal
background checks on staff and volunteers.
Legislative authorization for this system had been
granted to the Volunteer Center in 1993 and
extended in 1995, due to significant work by Phil
Ritter, a board member at the time.
To date, nearly 500,000 checks have been conducted,
with a "hit" rate of slightly more than 7 percent.
Translated into real numbers, 35,000 individuals
who wished to volunteer or work in a North Texas
nonprofit had past criminal activity worth noting.
Parents, businesses and citizens need to wake up to
the importance of thorough background checks on
individuals who will work with your children as
volunteer coaches, teachers and more. And remember
this: Criminal records come in many levels.
Checking only convictions keeps children from
having the protection they deserve.
Imagine a scenario where an individual has been
arrested and charged with molesting a child. That
charge sometimes can be plea-bargained down to a
less serious offense. The conviction on record
might be for burglary, for example, if, before the
perpetrator molested the child, he opened her
bedroom window and took her from her bed. However,
an in-depth check would reveal that the individual
originally was charged with molestation -- an
important red flag.
No criminal background checking system is
infallible. Not all counties send criminal records
to the Texas Department of Public Safety in a
timely manner. Human error can creep into a
checking system.
However, a complete check optimizes detection of
problem backgrounds by revealing both arrest and
conviction records, along with aliases and other
helpful, specific information. Don't settle for
less than an in-depth Texas check, along with a
review of convictions from other states. The
Volunteer Center also does checks against the
national sexual predator registry.
And including a Social Security check, as the
Volunteer Center's system does, would have caught
the false number in the tragic day-care case. If
more people are informed about the differences in
criminal background checks, we all can do a better
job of protecting the vulnerable among us -- like
your children.
Julie Thomas is executive
director of the Volunteer Center of North Texas.
Her e-mail address is jthomas@
volunteernorthtexas.org.
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Sunday, March 6 2005
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The Dallas Morning News
Business Section, 2nd Edition
Page 6D
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Background checks help
agencies stay safe
by Robert Miller
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Why
did the Volunteer Center of North Texas create VeriFYI?
Simple.
"You can never be too certain about the people you
work with, especially when they work with people who are
already at risk," said Dan Fitzgerald, associate
executive director of the Volunteer Center.
And
screening individuals for staff or volunteer positions can
protect clients from harm and reduce the risk of lawsuits,
he said.
The
Volunteer Center started offering VeriFYI on Jan. 1.
Members
and nonmembers can join the service for a one-time $100
fee and get background checks for $7.30 each, Mr.
Fitzgerald said, compared with more than $20 for
background checks elsewhere. And VeriFYI checks are
"more extensive than practically anywhere else,"
he said.
The
checks aren't just for nonprofit agencies. Faith-based
organizations, youth sports leagues and "any
tax-supported entity or agency with a 501(c)3 status that
serves a vulnerable clientele should use VeriFYI,"
Mr. Fitzgerald said.
He
explained how the service came about.
"Since
1993, there was a Texas law that provided conviction
records in the state.
"Then,
in 1995, the law was expanded to allow volunteer centers
access to the complete arrest as well as conviction
records – including juvenile records that are
sealed," he said.
Arrests
may not be important if they occurred for some long-ago
youthful indiscretion, he said. But an arrest for a sexual
predator, even without a conviction, would raise a red
flag.
"Only
Texas allows nonprofits, as far as I know, to get arrest
records, too. Other states only allow [access to]
convictions."
The
Volunteer Center knew that agencies needed information
beyond the state's borders and more source material within
Texas, Mr. Fitzgerald said, which is how VeriFYI came
about.
National
reach
In
addition to searching state and county records, VeriFYI
operates on national level. It can access national
criminal records, sexual predator lists and aliases as
well as Social Security traces.
If
a person says he comes from one place and the Social
Security trace shows no record of it, Mr. Fitzgerald
explained, that's a red flag that requires further
investigation.
"One
of the things that is driving our thoroughness in
background checks is that more and more insurance
companies are requiring criminal backgrounds on volunteers
at an agency," he said.
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"One
agency in town has run about 1,500 people through the
system since Jan. 1. Of that total, 45 were found
unsatisfactory," two of those from out-of-state
records.
Mr.
Fitzgerald emphasized that the Volunteer Center doesn't
interpret arrest and conviction records. That
responsibility stays with the individual agencies.
"It
is recommended that you run a background check on your
staff and volunteers every two years, but most agencies
run one every six months," he said. "This means
that sooner rather than later you're likely to catch those
whom you don't want working at your agency."
Mr.
Fitzgerald has two full-time employees and uses an outside
company to monitor VeriFYI.
One
of the agencies using VeriFYI is the YMCA of Metropolitan
Dallas.
"We've
used the Volunteer Center's background check services
since 1994, after the State Legislature gave them the
ability to access criminal records and then the arrest
records," said Stanley Smith, the Y's vice president
of risk management.
Pilot
program
"We
started a pilot program with them in 2003 to access FBI
files with electronic fingerprints. They've helped us move
to screening beyond Texas borders.
"They're
such a credible organization. We have really trusted them
to provide us with cutting-edge criminal background
checks."
The
arrest records and sealed records of minors are critical,
Mr. Smith said, "because we have kids 16 years of age
whom we use as lifeguards. It is very important to us
because they interact with kids and families."
We
may live in an electronic age, but Mr. Smith likes to see
hard copies of the reports, which the Volunteer Center
provides.
VeriFYI
is online nationwide, so "we get hits from as far
away as Pennsylvania," Mr. Fitzgerald said.
Out-of-state
agencies, however, only get the information Texas provides
on its national online site, such as conviction records.
Arrest records and sealed juvenile records aren't
available.
And
true to the Texas motto, "Friendship," the
Volunteer Center charges users nationwide only enough to
cover the cost of the service.
h
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