Is there a reason we don’t already grant YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs, summer camps and other groups and programs for kids access to FBI background checks like we do to state criminal information?
Is there a reason we don’t already grant YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs, summer camps and other groups and programs for kids access to FBI background checks like we do to state criminal information?
Seriously, can anyone think of a reason this isn’t already a federal law? With pedophiles preying on youngsters in the news practically every day, why do 34 states still block access to a national FBI database that could help organizations and programs flag sex offenders before they’re hired or welcomed as volunteers? More than 15 million adults every year volunteer with youth programs.
With the common knowledge that sex offenders seek jobs with youth-focused groups, even moving from state to state — or being moved by their employer — to avoid detection of their criminal past, why did the last Congress fail to advance a bill to allow access to federal records?
The bill is back. The Child Protection Improvement Act has been reintroduced, Minnesota Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar announced last week. If passed this time, it would close “a gaping hole in federal law,” the senators said in a joint statement.
“As a former prosecutor, I know how important it is to have accurate information on who is working with our kids,” Sen. Klobuchar said, according to the statement. “This legislation takes important steps to ensure that groups in Minnesota and across the country have access to the tools they need to keep our kids safe.”
Added Franken, “Parents need to be able to trust that their kids are in safe hands when they send to them to camp or other youth-serving organizations. … This bill will help make sure that our kids (are) safe by giving groups that (work) with children critical access.”
Currently, states decide who can have access to the FBI’s information. Even in states that allow access, the response time can be as long as six weeks. The federal law would grant more-immediate access in all states, allowing youth-serving organizations to more effectively check applicants’ backgrounds for violent or sex crimes, regardless of where the crime was committed, as syracuse.com reported.
Personal privacy still would be protected under the new law, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the bill’s sponsor, told reporters in his home state last week. That’s because employers would be notified only if a conviction shows up in the FBI database. And results of any background check would have to be returned within days.
Schumer also said his legislation won’t cost taxpayers. Groups seeking the background checks would pay a small fee to the federal government to cover the costs.
No, the law won’t guarantee netting every pedophile. Some have no criminal record. But it would improve the odds by closing a loophole and improving transparency.
“It should pass easily,” Schumer said of his bill, according to syracuse.com. “This kind of legislation does not get caught up in the partisan mess in Washington.”
While it’s hard to believe anything escapes the partisan mess in Washington, D.C., this bill, — supported by the American Camp Association, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the YMCA and others — deserves bipartisan support. And, this time, passage.