Playing sports helps children and young adults stay in shape and has various mental benefits like improving concentration, reducing stress and depression, boosting self-confidence and enabling leadership skills.
When parents enroll their child in any sport, they expect their child’s full safety; hence conducting a proper background check on coaches and employees becomes important to avoid placing any child or young adult in an unsafe environment.
Background checks not only help the kids stay away from potential predators but also helps the sports organization build a dependable force. Employees are the most valuable asset of an organization; if correct and trustworthy people are hired, it can largely contribute towards the company’s success.
Before a coach is permitted to work, it’s important to do background checks, including a sex offender search, to ensure a secure and protected environment for children and adults. From drug testing, social media checks, and identity verification to finding out the financial and credit history of the volunteers, sports screening is necessary to provide a comprehensive history so that the athletes are in appropriately skilled, safe hands.
In an attempt at keeping youth sports safe, before employing a coach or staff member, various sports screening tests are run to ensure maximum safety and a comfortable environment for the kids.
Scroll down to read what youth sports screening consists of:
Identity confirmation
This is the first step in the background screening process. To confirm identity, their legal documents are matched with the ones they present to the organization. For example, identity verification includes screening the employee’s full name, address and date of birth. Such details give the organization an idea about who they are hiring and help weed out potential predators.
History as a sex offender
Sports team member screening protects children from dangerous criminals, uncomfortable environments and bad influences. There are numerous benefits of playing sports, running a multi-state sex offender search will help ensure that children are in safe hands and eliminate anyone with a history as a sex offender.
History of child abuse
Emotional or sexual mistreatment leading to harm is non-tolerable in any organization. To ensure good training and ethics of a team, coaches with a history of any form of child abuse are a big no-no. Volunteers with clean records have a much higher possibility of getting selected.
Invalid social security
Verifying the social security number is very important to run an efficient background check. A copy of the potential employee’s social security card is obtained to verify their social security number. Any false or invalid numbers alert the organisation and the applicant becomes a red flag.
Local and national criminal history
Knowing criminal history is mandatory for youth sports background checks. Running a national criminal check is helpful as the probability of missed or incomplete records becomes low. When a potential coach is aware that they will undergo a criminal background check, submission of false documents and lying in the interview process automatically decreases. Such checks also help save the organization from violence, theft or misconduct.
Essential documents for background screening
While recruiting an employee, various documents are required to run a proper background screening to get accurate results and make a wise decision. Below is a list of all essential documents required to obtain information and eliminate anyone who can be dangerous to children.
- Name verification
- Address verification for the last seven to ten years
- Social security number
- Social media checks
- Driving record
- Drug testing
- Credit history
Screening policy and code of conduct
To protect youth, sports background checks are essential. For this, a code of conduct in a written format is helpful to remove any miscommunication between the members. To ensure transparency and demonstrate a solid commitment towards the well-being of the players, all team members must go through the same screening process irrespective of whether they know each other from before or not. Even coaches who have been in the sports industry for a long time and have a good reputation should go through the screening process from time to time to ensure the equality and safety of everyone.
Pricing of youth sports screening
Most companies running youth sports background checks offer different packages. The basic package can include a national sex offender search, verifying social security number, verifying address history etc. Such packages can range between 10-20 dollars. On every youth sports volunteer, checks are run before every season.
More advanced packages include a detailed background check and can give better results that are more accurate and trustworthy. These packages averagely range between 30-60 dollars depending on the depth of the details required. From checking their driving record to national criminal history, a complete screening provides a safe environment for athletes and a great relief for parents.
To avoid any negative consequences, running a background check on youth sports volunteers is always a good idea. When an organization provides a healthy and safe environment for its athletes, it helps them to prosper. Such checks help weed out predators by scanning legal documents and verifying the identities of employees. Driving records of the employees who are responsible for driving the athletes to events are also checked.
The safety of the athletes is paramount, and all sports organizations should maintain the budget for running background checks as it’s better to invest in the full screening of potential employees rather than inviting a volunteer with harmful intentions.
People trail is a popular US-based website that has been a trusted screening partner for youth sports for many years. They offer reliable background checks and different packages according to your needs. Check their website for more information about their screening process. There are various benefits of making background checks mandatory. By doing so, predators with prior negative records will withdraw and raise red flags for those who refuse to undergo screening.
Background checks are a great way to help ensure that the focus stays on the game and the kids and prevent any kind of abuse; hence it is beneficial if followed by all youth sports organizations religiously.
Leave a Reply