Volunteer
Volunteers are the cornerstone of our success! Volunteers help run our art and garden programs and hopefully soon some of our afterschool tutoring programs. Our volunteers are parents, family members or community members.
The Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) requires all volunteers to be screened. The type of screening depends on the type of volunteer work. You can pick up required forms in the school office, or print them directly from the website. The PTA does have some funding available for fingerprinting, the program coordinator can provide more information.
Following are the screening guidelines from the SCUSD website.
SCREENING
NO SCREENING REQUIRED – LEVEL 1
Screening is not required for volunteers who have no student contact and whose duties are primarily conducted off campus. Examples include parents who volunteer on behalf of their child’s school to correct papers, make telephone calls to other parents, bake cookies for the class or attend a school-wide event where they are fully supervised by staff.
SCREENING REQUIRED – LEVEL 2 & 3
To protect students, SCUSD policy requires that all other volunteers, including parent volunteers, be screened. Different levels of screening are required for the different types of volunteers:
VOLUNTEERS WITH NO UNSUPERVISED STUDENT CONTACT – Level 2
(Staff Supervisor Present)
Regular volunteers who will NOT be working directly with students and/or have NO unsupervised contact with students must only pass the sex offender screening.Office volunteers and volunteer instructional aides are examples. A prospective volunteer in this category must complete a SOC-1 form and submit it to the school site. There is no charge for this screening.
VOLUNTEERS WITH POSSIBLE UNSUPERVISED STUDENT CONTACT – Level 3
(No Staff Supervisor Present)
Volunteers whose work duties involve direct student contact when there is any possibility that such contact may occur outside the direct supervision of SCUSD staff must pass the fingerprinting (full background check.) Examples might include mentors, field trip drivers or chaperones or volunteer coaches. Fingerprinting includes a full review of the applicant’s criminal background check, including sex offenses, driving and drug and alcohol convictions. A prospective volunteer in this category must complete a BC-1 form and submit it to the school site for approval before coming to the district office to complete the fingerprinting. Please check with the school site about how to handle the cost. Click here for more information about SCUSD’s Fingerprinting Service, location and hours of operation.