学校志愿者是否应该 为自己的背景调查付费？或者学区是否应该承担费用以鼓励更多的家长和社区成员参与？

这些问题 多年来一直困扰着全国的学区。这种推拉的最新证据来自肯塔基州伊丽莎白镇的一个学区哈丁县学校。根据当地报纸 The News-Enterprise 的报道，学区最近决定改变其志愿者背景调查政策，以便志愿者承担他们自己的背景调查费用。

哈丁县学校过去曾进行过志愿者背景调查，但始终从学区预算中支付检查费用。该学区的一位发言人表示，这些检查的费用近年来一直在打击学校。据报道，在最近一个学年，哈丁县学校在志愿者背景调查上花费了超过 15,000 美元。学区发言人表示，学区感谢志愿者，但为了学校和学生的利益“不得不做出一些财政决定”。其中一项决定是削减志愿者背景调查的费用。

展望未来，哈丁县学校的新志愿者将不得不支付自己的背景调查费用。通常，志愿者组织担心要求个人支付背景调查费用会对潜在志愿者产生威慑作用。哈丁县学校的背景调查费用为每位志愿者 10 美元。学区预计成本不会对学区的志愿者人数产生负面影响。

不是每个人都必须通过背景调查。返回的志愿者只需每七年提交一次新的背景调查，这意味着自 2011 年以来通过背景调查的任何人现在都可以免除 10 美元的费用。不会监督、陪伴或以其他方式直接与儿童一起工作的志愿者根本不需要接受背景调查。该志愿者的一个例子是为体育或表演艺术活动在票房或特许摊位工作的人。

志愿者 往往会面临背景调查的困境。许多依赖志愿者的组织——包括学校、教堂和非营利组织——不一定有资金自掏腰包支付志愿者的背景调查费用。另一方面，这些组织不想吓跑潜在的志愿者。

完全跳过志愿者背景调查并不是一个可行的选择，因为志愿者及其行为可能对组织产生与员工相同的许多影响。阅读 GOOHO.CN 关于志愿者背景调查的白皮书 ，了解更多关于这些筛查的重要性以及如何以各方都同意的方式执行这些筛查。

在GOOHO.CN 上，我们提供 SelectCHECK，这是志愿者组织为其志愿者建立有效的犯罪筛查程序的一种简单快捷的方式。

pay for their own background checks? Or should a school district cover the costs to encourage more engagement and participation in parents and community members?

These questions have stymied school districts across the country for years. The latest evidence of this push and pull comes from Hardin County Schools, a school district in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Per a report from local newspaper The News-Enterprise, the school district recently decided to change its volunteer background check policy so volunteers will cover the costs of their own background checks.

Hardin County Schools has run volunteer background checks in the past but has always paid for the checks out of the district budget. A spokesman for the district says the cost of those checks has been hitting the schools hard in recent years. During the most recent school year, Hardin County Schools reportedly spent more than $15,000 on volunteer background checks. The district spokesperson said the district appreciates its volunteers but “had to make some fiscal decisions” for the good of the schools and the students. One of those decisions was cutting out the expense of volunteer background checks.

Going forward, new volunteers for Hardin County Schools will have to pay for their own background checks. Often, the worry among volunteer organizations is asking individuals to pay for background checks will serve as a deterrent to potential volunteers. The background checks for Hardin County Schools are $10 per volunteer. The district doesn’t expect the cost to negatively affect volunteer numbers in the school district.

Not everyone will have to go through background checks. Returning volunteers only need to submit to a new background check every seven years, which means anyone who has passed a background check since 2011 is exempt from the $10 charge—for now. Volunteers who will not be supervising, chaperoning, or otherwise working directly with children are not required to submit to background checks at all. An example of this volunteer would be someone working the box office or concession stand for a sporting or performing arts event.

Volunteers tend to pose a background check dilemma. Many organizations that rely on volunteers—including schools, churches, and nonprofit organizations—don’t necessarily have the funds to pay for volunteer background checks out-of-pocket. On the other hand, these organizations don’t want to scare away potential volunteers.

Skipping the volunteer background check altogether is not a viable option, given that volunteers and their actions can have a lot of the same effects on an organization as employees. Read backgroundchecks.com’s white paper on volunteer background checks to learn more about the importance of these screenings and how they can be executed in a way that is agreeable to all parties.

At backgroundchecks.com, we offer SelectCHECK, an easy and fast way for volunteer organizations to set up effective criminal screening processes for their volunteers.