REQUEST FOR A BACKGROUND CHECK - CHOOSING LIVE SCAN OR SCREENINGONE

Click a button, below, to select the appropriate method of background check. Read all instructions carefully on these pages to prevent having to repeat your background check. If you plan to minister, work, or volunteer for the Diocese of San Bernardino in any ministry or position that involves or may involve minors, you must successfully complete child safety training appropriate to your ministry, as well as a successful background check. ALL CLERGY and EMPLOYEES of the Diocese, including school and parish employees, whether permanent employees of the Diocese or independent contractors, must submit to a successful DOJ and FBI background check, which involves fingerprinting through the Live Scan service. Check with Paula Garcia in the Diocesan Human Resources Office for approved facilities in your area. MOST VOLUNTEERS will, instead, submit a background check application through ScreeningONE, which has been implemented for SCHOOL AND PARISH VOLUNTEERS. As of mid-October, 2011, after revisiting the background check process, the Bishop decided to follow a more convenient and economical avenue for diocesan volunteers, contracting with ScreeningONE to run volunteers' background checks. This new method of background checks is convenient because it involves going to the school or parish office and filling out an application accurately and completely. A $30 fee is due at the time the screening request is submitted. Results are available in a few days, rather than the weeks usually required of a Live Scan. As a result, a Live Scan fingerprinting will no longer be needed for these volunteers. EXCEPTION: Preschool parents, who wish to volunteer at their child's preschool, MUST do their background check using the Live Scan fingerprint process. Also, note that preschool Live Scans are administered by the Social Services department of the State of California, and are required by state law for all volunteers at all preschools. This Live Scan is valid only for preschool parents. Once children have moved into elementary school,the preschool Live Scan is no longer active. At that point, the parents will need to have a ScreeningONE background check to continue their eligibility as a school volunteer. ALL PERSONS who ran an acceptable Live Scan background check through the Diocese WILL NOT have to resubmit another background check authorization. Volunteers who submitted a background check through ScreeningONE WILL NEED to run a background check if they become an employee or clergy in Diocese of San Bernardino. Live Scan fingerprint forms are available online for some of the classifications, and can be downloaded, below. However, the Diocese is not responsible for incorrectly filled-out forms, which may incur an extra fee for resubmission to the Department of Justice. For that reason, the first preference is obtaining a partially-filled form directly from the parish, school or ministry where you will work or volunteer. These forms are for Live Scan fingerprint for background checks for clergy or employees only. ScreeningONE authorizations for all volunteers, parish or school, are only available at the parish or school office. Print clearly so that the designee working at the parish or school will be able to enter the information correctly in the application process. It is important to understand how to complete the process successfully. First, please click each of the above tabs to explore the full process. Then, return to this page (the GET REQUEST tab at the top) and select your role in ministry for the Diocese from the buttons below.

INTRODUCTION TO DIOCESE OF SAN BERNARDINO CHILD SAFETY POLICIES

The Diocese of San Bernardino has policies in place which require BACKGROUND CHECKS, as well as CHILD SAFETY TRAINING.

BACKGROUND CHECKS: All clergy, ordination candidates, and employees, as well as lay and religious volunteers who supervise or assist when minors are present (volunteer catechists, youth ministers, youth choir directors, coaches, scout leaders, and parents volunteering in youth activities at a parochial school, for example), must have a satisfactory background check.

Volunteers must fill out an application for a background check through ScreeningONE. These forms are only available in parish and school offices.

Clergy and employees must fill out a request for a Live Scan, which is a digital fingerprint process. The request must then be taken to an approved Live Scan location listed on this website, or else, a mobile Live Scan session specifically referred by the Diocese.

BE ADVISED THAT EVEN IF YOU HAVE BEEN LIVE SCANNED OUTSIDE THE DIOCESE OF SAN BERNARDINO - FOR EXAMPLE AS A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER OR A STATE PUBLIC SAFETY EMPLOYEE - YOU MUST STILL HAVE THE NECESSARY BACKGROUND CHECK AT THE DIOCESE.

Unfortunately, the DOJ and FBI will not share results among the different agencies when requested, so each agency, whether a Diocese or School District, must procure their own background check. This is a result of the HIPAA Act (information privacy and disclosure laws).

CHILD SAFETY TRAINING: The Diocese provides two (2) training courses for all persons in the diocese who minister in any capacity to children. These courses are presented as workshops, as well as online training, for the convenience of trainees. The trainings are currently available in English and Spanish, with the document-only materials now available in Vietnamese for the first course.

Course 1 covers "Safe Environment", and is based on the Diocesan document, "Diocese of San Bernardino Safe Environment Policy for the Protection of Children AND Young People and Code of Pastoral Conduct". DOCYP policy is that all training certificates will be reviewed on June 30 of each year for expiration. All certificates already in their fifth year on June 30 will expire. This is a convenience for school and parish staff and volunteers, reducing tracking and auditing overhead.

Course 2: covers “Mandated Reporter", and is based on the California State Law Document, "The State of California Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Law". DOCYP policy is that all training certificates will be reviewed on June 30 of each year for expiration. All certificates already in their fifth year on June 30 will expire. This is a convenience for school and parish staff and volunteers, reducing tracking and auditing overhead.

TRAINING

BACKGROUND CHECKS & LIVE SCAN

WHO?

The Diocese of San Bernardino requires current Live Scan fingerprinting by the California Department of Justice for background checks of all clergy, all Diocesan, Parish and School employees, candidates for ordination (seminarians & deacon candidates), and independent contractors (for example: gardeners, janitorial services, musicians).

The Diocese also requires current background checks through ScreeningONE for those volunteers who have regular contact with minors (those under the age of 18) in our parishes, schools and other Diocesan organizations. This is a minimum requirement. A parish may require that additional ministries be background checked as part of their Parish Plan.

All persons 18 or older, who supervise or will ever be alone when minors are present, must have a current satisfactory background check on file with the Diocese of San Bernardino.

Youth between the ages of 14-18, who volunteer with minors and will be alone with minors at any time, will also need to be background checked. Many times these are young people who accompany a child to the restroom, wait with them after an activity, etc. It is understood that these youth will also be supervised by an adult who has completed a satisfactory background check and the required training determined by this document.

WHERE'S MY PAPERWORK?

ScreeningONE requests required for volunteers MUST presently be picked up at the school or parish, since the background check is administered by a staff member there.

The Diocese RECOMMENDS THAT all lay employees (LIVE SCAN) acquire their background check request forms directly from their school or parish offices, also. A request that has been pre-filled by the institution you plan to serve can reduce the chance of error. Errors carry the risk of the applicant being charged the full fee for a recheck.

The Diocese recognizes that picking up a Live Scan request at these locations is not always convenient. Therefore, the Diocese is providing an application online for your convenience. Click the LIVE SCAN REQUEST tab at the top, select which category you serve, and follow directions to fill out your Live Scan request.

As applicants are recommended to pick up their background check request from the parish or school office, it is also helpful that the applicant fill out the request while present in the office. That way, the office can make two more photocopies of the request, as required for Live Scan, and give the applicant the three copies of the form. ScreeningONE applicants should also take home a copy of their request to file away.

YOUR NUMBER?

Each school, parish or Pastoral Center office/ministry has an unique “entity” code, which you must put in the "YOUR NUMBER" line. If you serve both a school and a parish, or multiple parishes, for instance, you can include the entity code for all these locations in the "YOUR NUMBER" line. The same is true for serving an office at the Pastoral Center and a parish.

If you download the Live Scan request, please be sure to print 3 copies of it.

The applicant will take ALL THREE copies of the form to the Live Scan Appointment. Make sure that the Live Scan employee signs, dates, and enters the facility information on ALL THREE requests. They will keep one copy, but the applicant must bring one copy back to the school or parish office, and keep the last one as proof of compliance.

WHERE'S DO I GET LIVE SCANNED?

Schools and parishes may set up a day for a mobile scanning crew to visit, especially at the beginning of a school year.

Click the FAQs & QUESTIONS tab at the top, to see an "official" state list of Live Scan Facilities by county from the State of California Attorney General's Office.

Live Scan Facilities can be housed in Sheriff substations, government buildings and private businesses. Many schools contract with a mobile Live Scan service to come to the campus one day for the convenience of parents.

Most schools and some parishes can often direct you to your most convenient Live Scan Facility. They may know from experience which facilities are efficient, have up-to-date equipment, and charge less.

FILLING OUT YOUR LIVE SCAN REQUEST

STEP BY STEP

CLICK HERE for step by step instructions about how to fill out your Live Scan Request. The form may change slightly over time, but the same general information should apply.

Make sure your Request for Live Scan Services is completed accurately. Failure to fill in fields exactly as needed risks rejection of the fingerprinting request, and loss of fees. (Hint: If information on your Lives Scan Request doesn't agree with your picture ID information, it is very likely your Live Scan will be rejected.)

If the Live Scan Request is rejected because there were problems reading the fingerprints or information is incorrect on the document, the parish or school coordinator will be notified. They should notify the applicant.

However, it is a good idea for the applicant to inquire with the school or parish office about the status of their live scan after about one week. Because of the volume of correspondence in an office, rejections might be accidentally ignored. The applicant is therefore responsible for assuring that live scan request is handled properly in a timely manner.

The State no longer prints Live Scan Request forms. The school or parish office must print the forms themselves, typing the correct Entity, ORI number, Mail Code, etc. on the form so the candidate won't have to.

The Request MUST be completed in triplicate.

• The top-page "original" is taken by the agency doing the scan.
• The second-page "copy" is returned to the parish or school requesting the live scan.
• The third-page "copy" must be retained by the person being fingerprinted as proof of having done the Live Scan.

As such, the applicant is responsible for providing 3 copies of the Live Scan Request form. All copies are filled out completely and identically. All copies must be signed.

In order to facilitate this process and make it as accurate as possible, all schools and offices should fill out the information on the form related to the: the ORI #, the Mail Code, Entity Code, etc.

The applicant should fill out their personal information in the school or parish office. Then, the office should provide 2 more photocopies of the request to the applicant.

The applicant is to bring those 3 copies of the Live Scan Request form to the agency completing the scan. Make sure all 3 Live Scan Request form are signed by the Live Scan Tech

TRANSFERRING LIVE SCAN RESULTS

When a person moves into another parish or school, already having been successfully fingerprinted through the ORI "A" code in the Diocese of San Bernardino, they will not have to be re-fingerprinted.

However, that process is not automatic. The volunteer or employee will have to alert the office of the new school/parish that they have already been fingerprinted in another parish or school in the Diocese of San Bernardino. The office should then complete the Transfer/Addition form and send it to the Diocesan Pastoral Center.

The Transfer/Addition form eliminates the need to be refingerprinted once the person meets the criteria. The one exception is if a person fingerprinted through the parish code becomes a school employee. They must be refingerprinted as stated in the California Education Code.

IF YOU MUST REPEAT YOUR LIVE SCAN

There is a 75-day grace period in which the applicant can return to the same testing location to complete the criteria successfully.

• You will be charged the full fee again if you do not repeat the rejected Live Scan in the original location. For mobile live scans, make sure you contact your school or parish office to locate that same agency.
• If the applicant has not met the criteria in the prescribed grace period, they will have to pay the fees for another Live Scan.

BACKGROUND CHECK INFO AND FAQS