Volunteers who participate in town produced activities or events, who do not have one-on-one contact with employees or participants, will be exempt from the screening process.  However, if other factors are present, such as having access to secured spaces and town facilities, handling money, driving vehicles, or having care, custody, and control of another’s property then the screening process will apply. 

All background screenings are conducted by an outside vendor and a volunteer’s private information is never viewed by Town of Herndon. Additional details are provided below.

General Information

  • Criminal background screenings are conducted by an outside third party who specializes in such work.

  • The Town of Herndon also accepts satisfactory background checks completed by a U.S. based law enforcement agency in the last 60 days.

  • Any person who has been found guilty, pled guilty or pled no contest, regardless of adjudication, or has a pending charge pertaining to any of the disqualifying offenses listed in this policy, will be immediately disqualified from volunteer opportunities with the Town of Herndon.

  • Town of Herndon also reserves the right to disqualify a person for any crime that is considered a potential risk to children and/or vulnerable populations.

  • An applicant who willfully (a) fails to comply with this background screening policy or (b) provides falsified data during the applicant process shall be automatically disqualified.

  • Each volunteer will be re-screened every 12 months for as long as they continue to volunteer for the Town of Herndon.

Screening Process Details

  • No other personal information (e.g. work history, financial, credit, etc.) is checked or researched.

  • The third-party contractor conducting the checks will cross-reference the screening results with the disqualifying crimes listed in this policy. An Accept or Reject grade will then be relayed to the Town of Herndon based on the cross-reference results.

  • An accept grade is given for any applicant who has zero disqualifying crime matches.

  • A reject grade is given for any applicant who has one or more disqualifying crime matches.

  • All information pertaining to the background check will remain with the third-party contractor, subject to the applicable laws requiring disclosure.

  • The Town of Herndon will not view the specific results of any background check; rather, will only be issued a accept/reject grade for each applicant.

  • If the third-party contractor reports any “reject” grades to the Town of Herndon, in addition to appeal information, the town shall notify the applicant that he or she is not permitted to volunteer for the town, until such time as their background screening meets the town’s criteria.

Confidentiality

  • To ensure confidentiality, the Town of Herndon will not view an applicant’s specific criminal history.

  • The criminal background reports shall be kept in a secure location by the third-party contractor for a period as required by applicable law.

Appeal Process

If an applicant’s background check includes a charge set forth on the list of disqualifiers below, the town shall immediately disqualify a person from their volunteer opportunity. There shall be no appeal of a decision to disqualify an applicant, if the applicant’s relevant criminal history is accurate; all decisions are final.

If an applicant wishes to dispute the content of the profile report, the applicant shall contact the third-party responsible for conducting the background check by calling the telephone number listed on the report. The applicant is responsible for providing any or all documentation to support their claim, in accordance with the FCRA.

Disqualifying Crimes

The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) has reviewed the resources of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners and sought the counsel of recognized background screening experts to develop a set of Recommended Guidelines for Volunteer Background Screening in park and recreation settings. These guidelines were produced as a result of this review.

If an applicant (1) has been convicted of, (2) has a charge pending against him or her in which it is alleged that he or she has committed any of the following crimes, or (3) has a record of a conviction of an equivalent offense in another state, the applicant will be disqualified from volunteer opportunities by the Town of Herndon.

A. All Sex Offenses - Examples include, but are not limited to: child molestation, rape, sexual assault, sexual battery, prostitution, solicitation, indecent exposure and other related crimes. Registered sex offenders or failure to register as a sex offender.

B. All Felony Violence Offenses - Examples include, but are not limited to: murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault, domestic violence, kidnapping, robbery, aggravated burglary and other related crimes.

C. All Felony offenses other than violence or sex within the past ten (10) years - Examples include, but are not limited to: drug offenses, theft, embezzlement, fraud, child endangerment and other related crimes.

D. All Misdemeanor Violence offenses within the past seven (7) years - Examples include, but are not limited to: simple assault, battery, domestic violence, hit and run and other related crimes.

E. Two (2) Misdemeanor Alcohol offenses within the past five (5) years or three (3) or more offenses within the past ten (10) years - Examples include but are not limited to: driving under the influence, drunk and disorderly, public intoxication and other related crimes.

F. All Misdemeanor Drug offenses within the past five (5) years or two (2) or more offenses within the past ten (10) years - Examples include, but are not limited to: simple drug possession, possession of drug paraphernalia and other related crimes.

G. Any other misdemeanor within the past five (5) years that would be considered a potential danger to children - Examples include but are not limited to: contributing to the delinquency of a minor, providing alcohol to a minor and other related crimes.

H. Any other misdemeanor of moral turpitude within the past five (5) years - Examples include but are not limited to: cruelty to animals, animal fighting, perjury, mayhem, conspiracy, any type of larceny, fraud of any kind and other related crimes.

The Town of Herndon can’t wait to have your help! Please click here to express your interest in volunteering. The town will contact you shortly thereafter with further information. All questions should be directed to volunteer@herndon-va.gov