VOLUNTEER CLEARANCES
William Penn appreciates the willingness of volunteers to work with our students. Pennsylvania law requires all school volunteers who, through the course of their volunteer position, are responsible for the welfare of a child or have direct contact with children, are required to obtain and renew the following background checks.
The Child Abuse History Clearance can be completed online. Request for clearance statements may be made online at https://www.compass.state.pa.us/CWIS.
Upon signing on to the Child Welfare Portal, you will be asked to “Create Individual Account” or “Individual Login”. If this is your first time to the site, you will select “Create Individual Account”. Here you will be asked to create your Keystone ID # (this is an ID that you will create for yourself and retain for later use). In Part 1, Application Purpose, please select “Volunteer Having Contact with Children….”. Upon completion and submission of your application you will be notified via email when your clearance certification is ready to view online (anywhere from 1 day to 4 weeks).
You will then log back into your account on the Child Welfare Portal and select “Individual Login” to access and print out the certificate. If you selected to have a copy mailed to you, it could take 4-8 weeks or longer.
Note: If you are having technical difficulties accessing the site, please call CWIS Technical Support at 1-877-343-0494.
State Background Check: (Free for volunteers)
The Pennsylvania Criminal History can be done online. The online results are available almost immediately. To complete the process online, go to https://epatch.pa.gov/home and click on “New Volunteer Record Check” and follow the instructions.
At the end of the process, you will be shown a receipt on the screen (which you can print only if you want a receipt). In the middle of the receipt at the bottom, you will see “Certification Form” in blue. Click on this and it will bring up your “Response for Criminal Record Check” certificate which you will then print. This is the document you must submit.
Federal Criminal History Record through IdentoGO – (Complete if you have not lived inside the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania within the past ten years). The FBI Federal Criminal History requires individuals to have fingerprints digitally rolled at a registered fingerprinting site. You must first register for the process. The link below will take you directly to the scheduling page for the service code for 1KG6ZJ Pennsylvania DHS-Volunteer. Do not order any other service code. If you do not order this service or if you choose an option other than “Pennsylvania DHS-Volunteer”, the District will not accept your results. You will have to reapply and pay for the correct fingerprints. Use this link: https://uenroll.identogo.com/workflows/1KG6ZJ
Click on Schedule/Manage Appointment. Go through the screens and enter information as required. Enter your zip code and the system will then take you to a screen with local IdentoGO Service Centers.
Click on the center where you want to go to be fingerprinted. You can make an appointment on-line or select walk in. Payment is taken at the Center. After making that choice, it will take you to a Service Summary Page. Print that page and remember to take the identification document you indicated when you registered online. After your fingerprints are taken, you must provide the receipt or a copy of the receipt you will be given to Human Resources. Human Resources will access your results from the database.