Back DIOCESE OF ALLENTOWN VOLUNTEER BACKGROUND CHECKS PROCESSING PROCEDURES Effective October 1, 2004 In conjunction with the Volunteer Background Check policy, effective October 1, 2004, that states that criminal background checks are required for all individuals who are reasonably expected to come into contact with children, the following procedures will be used to process the background checks to promote the success of this program: 1. The Pastor, Principal or Administrator distributes the Diocese of Allentown's Lay Employee/Volunteer Background Check Authorization form to his/her volunteers. This form may be reproduced. 2. The Pastor, Principal or Administrator collects the completed forms from the volunteers. 3. The Pastor, Principal or Administrator either enters the data himself/herself or assigns a trusted employee or a trusted volunteer to enter the data via internet access at https://members.usis-csd.com. Regardless of who is chosen to complete this task, it remains the responsibility of the Pastor, Principal or Administrator to ensure that this employee or volunteer completes the task. 4. A username will be assigned by the Diocese of Allentown and the USIS Widescreen reference check company. Training will be provided regionally and follow-up training for new users will be provided as needed. A password will be provided to the individual assigned to process the checks. Customer Service support via a toll free number by USIS Widescreen will be available at no charge. 5. In the event the user changes, USIS Widescreen should be notified so that a new password may be issued to provide the utmost confidentiality in the use of the system. 6. If the volunteer has had a clear background check performed by the Diocese within the past twelve (12) months, the individual would not need a background check at this time. 7. The USIS Widescreen website will indicate a clear check almost instantaneously. 8. It may take up to six (6) weeks for a background check with activity present to be processed. Therefore, if the software indicates that the check is, "Pending Diocesan Receipt and Review," then the individual should not be allowed unsupervised contact with children until the individual has been cleared. 9. All background checks with activity present will be reviewed by the Diocese's Human Resources Department. After review, the Diocese will change the pending status to, "Eligible" or "Please see Pastor/Principal/Administrator". The Pastor/Principal/Administrator will be contacted to discuss the individual's report results in the event of an unfavorable finding. At no time will the location have access to the actual criminal records of any individual for confidentiality purposes. 10. Volunteers who are reasonably expected to come into contact with children will be required to have a background check completed periodically at an interval to be set at a later date. 11. It is the Pastor, Principal or Administrator's responsibility to ensure that all volunteers have returned completed forms to them and have complied with the above outlined process.       Post Office Box F  •  Allentown, PA  •  18105-1538 Copyright 2003 The Catholic Diocese of Allentown Disclaimer and Terms of Use