Adult youth leader CORI and SORI background checks

[paineinthearse]

A post in GENERAL picqued my interest -
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3189121&mesg_id=3189121

In Massachusetts, to be a leader of a youth group, one must pass a CORI and & SORI (criminal * sex offender) background check.

1. Is this a one-time check, or, if you are an ongoing leader/coach/teacher/etc is this annual?

2. My teen son needed to do this to be a summer camp counselor in Massachusetts, but not in New Hampshire.

3. As a soccer coach, my town club / the league never required me to submit applications.

4. As an adult volunteer who stayed 1 week at a boy scout summer camp and who has gone on many weekend camping trips, the local troop and the council have never required me to submit CORI and SORI applications.

For more info on CORI and SORI, go to http://www.mass.gov/chsb/cori/cori.html & http://www.mass.gov/sorb/

CONCERNS:

1. The Massachusetts laws lack verification that all adult leaders have approved forms on file.
2. The program is not national.

Let's discuss this issue, form a concensus, and petition our state reps to tighten the existing laws, and for our Congresspeople to adopt a national standard.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. if you are an ongoing leader/coach/teacher/etc is this annual?

Do you really think that if somebody was involved in a sex crime, that it would somehow escape the attention of people who were involved with the person? For some reason I really doubt the utility of all these background checks.

[HockeyMom]

2. New York School District

I don't know about leaders of youth groups, but to get a job in any public school district in NYS (from teacher to janitor), starting in 2001, you have to be fingerprinted. Yes, the people who were already working in the schools, were grandfathered in; IF you had a certain number of years there. There are no annual checks, but if you change schools, they do run a check on you. At any rate, there is still Megan's Law which would notify both the schools and the neighborhood if a sex offender moved into the district.

Now, some of the private pre schools here are also starting to require fingerprinting for all employees too. Good idea.