Nonprofit compliance in Indiana

Indiana has no general volunteer-screening mandate. Statutes require checks for volunteers in specific settings: anyone who may be present at a licensed child care center, licensed child care home or registered child care ministry during operating hours (IC 12-17.2), high school volunteer coaches (IC 20-26-14-9), and DCS-licensed residential care: every volunteer at group homes and child placing agencies (IC 31-27-5-4, 31-27-6-2); at child caring institutions, since a July 1, 2026 narrowing, volunteers likely to have unsupervised contact with children or access to their records (IC 31-27-3-3); and foster family home volunteers with regular contact (IC 31-27-4-5). Any organization that provides care may request an FBI fingerprint check on a volunteer through the Indiana State Police (IC 10-13-3-39), but it is not required to.

• Indiana Code § 10-13-3-39 — Qualified Entity Volunteer Background Checks (IC 10-13-3-39 (2026)) — Any qualified entity — a public, private, for-profit, nonprofit or voluntary organization that provides care or care placement services — may ask the Indiana State Police for an FBI fingerprint check on a volunteer; a request must be made within three months after the person first volunteers. For most entities ISP reports only whether the person has a conviction in listed categories, not the full record.
• Indiana Code § 20-26-5-10 — School Employee and Contractor Background Check Policy (IC 20-26-5-10 (2026); volunteer coaches: IC 20-26-14-9) — Requires school corporations, charter schools and nonpublic schools to adopt a criminal history policy for job applicants and contractors likely to have direct, ongoing contact with children, to run an expanded criminal history check and an Indiana expanded Child Protection Index check on those job applicants, and to recheck such employees every five years. We found no provision extending it to volunteers; volunteer coaches are covered separately by IC 20-26-14-9.
• Indiana Code § 12-17.2 — Childcare Volunteer Requirements (IC 12-17.2-4-3, 12-17.2-5-3, 12-17.2-6-14 (2026)) — Requires every employee and volunteer who may be present on the premises of a licensed child care center, licensed child care home or registered child care ministry during operating hours to apply for an FBI fingerprint check before starting and every three years. Since July 1, 2025, a supervised student aged 15 or older at a school corporation that runs a child care program may start volunteering as a caregiver before completing training, and must finish it within three months (IC 12-17.2-3.5-8); this does not waive the fingerprint check.
• Who it reaches: Volunteers who may be present during operating hours at licensed child care centers and homes, registered child care ministries and CCDF voucher providers — FBI fingerprints applied for before starting and every three years (IC 12-17.2-4-3, -5-3, -6-14, -3.5-12); Volunteer coaches of association-recognized high school sports (grades 9–12) at school corporations, charter high schools and nonpublic high schools — an expanded criminal history check before coaching (IC 20-26-14-9); Volunteers at DCS-licensed group homes and child placing agencies (IC 31-27-5-4, 31-27-6-2); at child caring institutions, volunteers likely to have unsupervised contact with children or access to their medical records (IC 31-27-3-3, narrowed July 1, 2026); and foster family home volunteers with direct, regular and continuing contact with children (IC 31-27-4-5); Optional, not required: any organization that provides care may request an FBI fingerprint check on a volunteer through the Indiana State Police (IC 10-13-3-39).
• Check types in use: Indiana State Police limited criminal history check (name-based; $16.32 online on ISP’s July 2020 fee schedule); FBI national fingerprint-based check via ISP (IC 10-13-3-39; most qualified entities receive a determination, not the record); Indiana Child Protection Index (CPI) check; Indiana Sex Offender Registry check; Annual CPI and sex offender registry re-checks for child care staff, as FSSA’s background check page describes (no statute found).
• Administered by: Indiana State Police (ISP) — Central Repository for criminal history; Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) — Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning for childcare; Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) for Child Protection Index checks and residential and foster care licensing.
• Typical processing: Name-based ISP limited check: results display online at the time of the search. ISP fingerprint check: ISP says results arrive in hours rather than days or weeks..

Yes. Indiana requires all persons to report suspected child abuse without naming any professions at all — so a volunteer's role is irrelevant to the duty. Everyone in your organization — teen volunteers included — is a mandated reporter. Confirm Indiana's current statute before writing your policy — these are amended often.

• In every state, territory and the District of Columbia, ANY person is permitted to report suspected abuse even when not required to. A volunteer who is not a mandated reporter can still call, and should.
• The safest operating posture, whatever the statute says, is to train every volunteer on what to report and to whom — a policy that only trains "mandated" staff leaves the person most likely to witness something untrained.
• Reporting duties are personal. A volunteer who is a mandated reporter cannot discharge the duty by telling a supervisor and stopping there in most states.
• Screening and reporting are different obligations. Clearing a background check does not satisfy a reporting duty, and no reporting policy substitutes for screening.

Indiana is one of 11 states with no general charitable solicitation registration requirement. That is not the same as nothing to do: county or municipal rules can still apply, professional fundraisers are often regulated separately, and registering elsewhere may still be required the moment you solicit residents of another state.

• No statewide registration for the charity itself under current guidance.
• Soliciting residents of other states can trigger registration in those states regardless of where you are based — an online donate button reaches all fifty.
• Exemptions exist in most registering states (small organizations, religious organizations, membership appeals) but they are specific and usually must be claimed rather than assumed.
• Confirm current requirements with your state charity office before relying on this — thresholds and exemptions are amended frequently.

These apply regardless of which state you operate in, and they are the ones most commonly missed by small organizations that assume state registration is the whole picture.

• Annual Form 990, 990-EZ, or 990-N. Three consecutive years of non-filing revokes exempt status automatically — this is the single most common way small nonprofits lose their status.
• If you run background checks on volunteers, the Fair Credit Reporting Act applies to you as a user of consumer reports: a standalone written disclosure, separate written authorization, and the pre-adverse and adverse action sequence before acting on a result.
• Public disclosure: your exemption application and recent 990s must be made available on request.
• Employment obligations attach to paid staff regardless of exempt status — payroll tax, worker classification, and wage and hour law all apply.