IN West Jefferson Hills Spring 2016 | Page 61

The West Jefferson Hills School District is proud to be partners with our parents/guardians and community members in the development and education of our students. Through this collaboration, we support having volunteers and visitors in our buildings while also maintaining a safe and secure environment for students, faculty, and staff. To ensure this is occurring every day in our buildings, we have established processes that help our volunteers to acquire the clearances required by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and to screen our visitors. In recent years, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania updated their Child Protective Services laws to require all volunteers to provide clearances to the school district where they will be volunteering. The clearances include a Pennsylvania State Police Background Check, a Department of Welfare Child Abuse Check, and an FBI Fingerprint Background Check. In order to help support volunteers, the Commonwealth has made the clearances from the PA State Police and Department of Welfare free of charge and accessible online. In addition, individuals who have resided in Pennsylvania for 10 or more continuous years may complete an affidavit and are not required to have their fingerprints taken. As a means to simplify this process, the West