BACKGROUND CHECKS

In 2021, California passed Assembly Bill 506 (AB506), which required youth organizations to do 3 things for all administrators, employees, and youth volunteers:

• Conduct a livescan background check
• Conduct child abuse prevention, identification, and reporting training
• Publish a set of policies concerning how it handles minors, prevent and identify cases of abuse, and how abuse would be reported. These policies would be enacted and enforced across the whole organization.

The church in Monterey Park, since we have a well-developed children’s work and young people’s work, falls under this requirement.

 

Before someone can serve the youth organization either as an administrator (elders), employees (full- and part-timers), or regular volunteers (young people and children serving ones), they must undergo a livescan background check, child abuse training, and adhere to the policies set forth by the organization. The training must be renewed every 2 years.

In addition, whenever there is any contact with minors, there must be present at least 2 mandatory reporters (those that have gone through background checks, training, and adherence to policies). This requirement is slightly relaxed for one-on-one contacts, but there must still be at least one mandatory reporter present.

 

 

AB506 distinguishes between those who are mandatory reporters and those who are not.

Administrators and employees automatically are mandatory reporters, regardless if they serve children/yp or not.

Volunteers are mandatory reporters if they are at least 18 years of age and contact minors at least either 16 hours in any month or 32 hours in a year.

Mandatory reporters are required to fulfill all 3 steps: background check, training, and policy compliance and are relied on to ensure that every contact with minors is accordance to policy.

 

 

 

 

Yes. Background checks must be done per agency. It is illegal for agencies to share information with one another, and each agency needs to look at the raw data and decide if the applicant is suitable to work/volunteer for that agency, as each agency has different requirements/criteria.

In addition, getting fingerprinted at some agency will also activate what is called Subsequent Arrest Notification. This means that after being fingerprinted, if the applicant is arrested for any reason, the agency is automatically notified. This stops, of course, when the applicant no longer works/volunteers for that agency.

This also applies to churches. If someone is involved in any capacity that causes them to be a mandatory reporter in multiple churches, that person must undergo the same background check for each of the churches that they are a mandatory reporter for.

 

 

Since there’s so many of us that need to get fingerprinted for the initial round, we have arranged with a nearby livescan operator to come to the meeting hall on Lord’s Day, June 2, 2024 between 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm. Because there’s so many of us, we have arranged 30-minute time slots for the saints to sign up for. When you sign up for a time slot, be sure to arrive at the meeting hall on time.

If you cannot come on that day, or if you miss the time slot, or it is past June 2, 2024, see the information below on making your own arrangements.

Prior to getting fingerprinted, you need to prepare the following items:

• The Request for Livescan Form, BCIA 8016, filled in completely, printed, and signed. (see instructions below)
• A valid (not expired) government-issued identification, such as a driver’s license, state ID card, permanent resident card, passport. School IDs, library cards, and employer IDs, or photocopies of IDs are not acceptable forms of identification.
• An acceptable form of payment if you are asked to pay for it. The livescan operator we are using accepts check, cash, Venmo, and Zelle only.

 

 

 

We have prepared forms specific for the church in Monterey Park. These forms are pre-filled with the church’s information.

Please note that these forms pertain to the church in Monterey Park only. If you are not getting fingerprinted for the church in Monterey Park, talk to your respective background check overseer to get the form/information relevant to you.

Select the form relevant to your situation. Choose the first one that applies to you. Be sure to follow the instructions below on how to fill out the form, and to print, sign, and bring a physical copy to your livescan appointment.

• Request for Livescan Form for leading brothers/elders
• Request for Livescan Form for full- or part-timers
• Request for Livescan Form for young people serving ones
• Request for Livescan Form for children serving ones

This information only pertains to the forms for the church in Monterey Park downloaded above. On these forms, much of the required agency information is already pre-filled.

On these forms, only fill in the Applicant Information section.

• Last Name, First Name, Middle Initial, Suffix: Fill out this information exactly as it shows on your government-issued ID. Use English characters only.
• Other Name: Fill in other names you have used in a legal or official capacity, e.g. to open bank accounts, different names used on driver’s licenses and passports, utility or phone bills, etc.
• Date of Birth: Fill in your birth date in the form mm/dd/yyyy
• Sex: Check one box
• Driver’s License Number: If you have a driver’s license, enter the 2-digit state that issued the license, then the license number. E.g. CA E1234567
• Height: Enter feet and inches in the form #’#” (not in centimeters/meters)
• Weight: Enter your weight in pounds (not in kilograms)
• Eye color: fill it in
  
• Hair color: fill it in
• Billing Number: leave blank unless instructed to fill it in
• Place of Birth: If you were born in the United States, enter the state in which you were born. Otherwise, enter the country in which you were born.
• Social Security Number (optional)
• Misc. Number: leave blank
• Home Address: fill in your residence addresss, not a PO box or other mailbox
  
• Applicant Signature: print the form, then sign here.
• Date: fill it in

Aside from the instructions above, do not fill in anything else on the form. It will cause your submission to be rejected by the Department of Justice and you will need to get fingerprinted again.

After you are fingerprinted, please contact us and send a picture of the entire Request for Livescan Form. That way we can track the status of the request.

It takes about 3 business days for the Department of Justice to respond back with your records. Once that happens, you will be notified by us. In most cases, it will just be notice that you have cleared the background check. If there needs to be further fellowship regarding your record, we will reach out to you. In the meantime just wait patiently.

In some cases, the application may be rejected if the fingerprints are not clear enough or there is something wrong with the application itself. If that’s the case, we will contact you with further instructions. Most likely you will need to make an appointment with the livescan operator to get fingerprinted again.

If you are unable to come to the meeting hall on June 2, 2024, or it is past that date, you can make your own appointment with the livescan operator.

Please do not wait to make the appointment with the livescan operator. The initial batch of livescans must be completed by June 30, 2024. After that livescans must be completed within 7 days after being notified.

The livescan operator we as the church uses is Hermi Felix. His facility is in Arcadia close to the Arcadia meeting hall.

Otherwise you can choose a livescan operator close to you from this list.

When going to your livescan appointment, be sure to bring a completed, printed, and signed copy of your Request for Livescan Form; a valid government-issued photo ID, and an accepted payment method (double-check with the livescan operator what payment methods are accepted and what the cost is).

No. The background check only needs to happen at the beginning of the service. As long as you actively remain in the service, you will never need to re-do the livescan.

Going between services is also ok, as long as your overall service in the church in these 4 aspects remain continuous.

However, if you ever leave the service and rejoin, you will need to go through the whole process again.

Both federal and state laws have given very clear and strict requirements as to how the data is handled because the information is not public record and is highly confidential.

The livescan operator is required to keep your form in a secure location. The data is stored in a locked cabinet and they are required to securely destroy the forms after a period of time. The DoJ performs surprise inspections for all livescan operators to ensure the data is always stored securely. The computer that the livescan operators use to process the fingerprints may not be used for anything else and may not be used by anyone else.

For the church, only the appointed Custodian of Records (CoR) can receive these reports in a secure online portal. The CoR has already undergone a criminal background check with the DoJ as part of the application process. Like the livescan operators, the CoR is responsible to ensure that the data is stored and handled securely, and destroyed securely when no longer needed. This requirement applies to both physical and electronic means.

Most agencies form a committee to review each application’s background and application and decide whether or not to accept the applicant into their agency. The church in Monterey Park will also form such a committee, and each member of the committee will be required to sign a legal agreement with the CoR to ensure proper handling, storage, and destruction of the saints’ information. This also includes ensuring any members of the household also do not have any ways to intentionally or accidentally access these records.

To keep things simple, we will not share the contents of the background check results with you.

You can, however, go through the livescan process on your own to see your own report. There are also means for you to appeal to correct anything on your official record that is incorrect. Contact us for more information.

The livescan background check is a criminal background check. It will return anything on your criminal record that is a misdemeanor or above. These crimes are more serious in nature, things like armed robbery, extreme speeding, etc.

Some traffic violations are also included, but only the more serious ones. Some examples are speeding more than 10 or 15 mph over the speed limit, reckless driving, DUIs, etc. A general rule of thumb is that if the fine is at least $300, it will probably be included in the report. Also a police officer must have been present and physically hand you a ticket in order for it to be included in the report. Things like parking tickets and red light camera tickets are not included. Any traffic violations meeting the above criteria for which traffic school was applied will still appear on a criminal background check.

Only convictions and arrests are reported. Convictions are cases where the accused either pled guilty or was found guilty. Certain cases where the defendant was charged but not convicted or was found innocent are not included in the report. Cases where a legal process was used to expunge the case from the official record will still appear in a criminal background check.

The livescan will only check the criminal history, cases involving breaking the law resulting in fines or jail time sentenced by the government. Civil cases (one person sues another for compensation for damages) or anything related to current immigration status is not checked nor returned in a criminal background check.

The report will return everything from 18 years old until now. Anything that happened prior to turning 18, known as juvenile records, are sealed upon turning 18 years old.