Nonprofit compliance in Kentucky

Kentucky has no general volunteer-screening law; its duties are setting-specific. Licensed and certified child care must run KSP and FBI fingerprint checks with rap back on every child care staff member, including any volunteer with supervisory or disciplinary control over a child or unsupervised contact with one (KRS 199.8965; 922 KAR 2:280), and child-caring facilities and child-placing agencies must do the same for volunteers who care for or have unsupervised access to children (KRS 199.642). Every public school board must require a state criminal records check on volunteers with regular student contact (KRS 161.148), and youth camps and programs that receive public funds must clear volunteers with a national and state check and a child abuse letter before they start (KRS 194A.382). Long-term care fingerprinting through KARES is voluntary for private providers (906 KAR 1:190). Any person who suspects child abuse must report it immediately (KRS 620.030).

• KRS 199.8965 and 922 KAR 2:280 — Child care staff member checks (KRS 199.8965; 922 KAR 2:280 (eff. 2-20-2024)) — Requires national and state fingerprint checks by KSP and the FBI, with rap back, for every child care staff member, which includes any person with supervisory or disciplinary control over a child in care or unsupervised contact with one. Checks must clear before the person starts and are repeated once every five years or after a 180-day break.
• KRS 199.642 and 922 KAR 1:290 — Child-caring facilities and child-placing agencies (KRS 199.642; 922 KAR 1:290; 922 KAR 1:300) — Staff members include volunteers and interns whose activities involve the care or supervision of children or unsupervised access to them. They need KSP and FBI fingerprint checks and registry checks before starting, with a new check at least every ten years.
• KRS 161.148 — Public school volunteers (KRS 161.148(4); KRS 160.380(7)) — Every local board of education must adopt a policy requiring a state criminal records check on volunteers who have contact with students on a regularly scheduled or continuing basis or supervise children at school or on school trips. Superintendents may also require volunteers to submit to KSP and FBI fingerprint checks and a clear CA/N check.
• KRS 194A.382 — Youth camps and programs that receive public funds (KRS 194A.380–194A.383; 902 KAR 10:040) — Before a volunteer is present, a camp or youth program that receives public funds must obtain a national and state criminal background check and a Cabinet letter showing no substantiated child abuse or neglect. Youth camp is defined to include recreational, educational and sports-training programs for children, and the camp may not use as a volunteer, in any position, anyone convicted of a sex crime or an offense against a minor, a violent offender or anyone found to have abused or neglected a child.
• 906 KAR 1:190 and KRS 209.032 — Kentucky NBCP and Caregiver Misconduct Registry (906 KAR 1:190 (eff. 2-16-2024); KRS 209.032) — Vulnerable adult service providers must query the Caregiver Misconduct Registry on prospective employees, a term that, by our reading, includes volunteers whose duties match a direct-service employee’s one-on-one role. Fingerprint checks with continuous assessment through KARES apply at state-operated facilities and private long-term care providers that choose to join the program.
• KRS 620.030 — Universal child abuse reporting (KRS 620.030 (eff. July 15, 2024)) — Any person who knows or has reasonable cause to believe a child is dependent, neglected or abused must report immediately to law enforcement, KSP, the Cabinet or a prosecutor. Listed professionals must also notify their supervisor, and intentional failure to report is a crime.
• Who it reaches: Child care staff members at licensed child-care centers, certified family child-care homes and registered relative providers, including any volunteer with supervisory or disciplinary control over a child in care or unsupervised contact with one: KSP and FBI fingerprint check with rap back plus registry checks, cleared before starting and repeated every five years (KRS 199.8965; 922 KAR 2:280); Volunteers and interns at child-caring facilities (residential care and group homes) and child-placing agencies whose activities involve the care or supervision of children or unsupervised access to them: KSP and FBI fingerprint check and registry checks before starting (KRS 199.642; 922 KAR 1:290; for child-placing agencies, only where the check can be done electronically, KRS 199.642(9)); Public school volunteers who have contact with students on a regularly scheduled or continuing basis, or supervisory responsibility for children at school or on school-sponsored trips: a state criminal records check under the policy every local board must adopt (KRS 161.148(4)); Volunteers in a position with supervisory or disciplinary power over a minor at a youth camp, local government youth day camp or other youth program that receives public funds, including sports-training programs: national and state criminal background check and a Cabinet clear-to-hire letter before any presence at the program (KRS 194A.380(7); 194A.382); Adults given access to public school grounds on a regularly scheduled and continuing basis under a written agreement to provide services directly to students, and nonfaculty coaches and assistants (702 KAR 7:065 does not say whether unpaid coaches count): KSP and FBI fingerprint check and a clear CA/N check (KRS 160.380(7)(a); 161.185(2)); CASA volunteers: criminal record check and a check of the child abuse and adult protection registry (KRS 620.515(1)); Volunteers at long-term care, assisted living, adult day health, home health, hospice, personal services and other vulnerable adult service providers whose duties match a direct-service employee’s and involve or may involve one-on-one contact: the provider must query the Caregiver Misconduct Registry for prospective employees, a term the law defines, by our reading, to include these volunteers — confirm with the Cabinet (KRS 209.032(1)(a), (2)); Employees and volunteers who work with children in an instructional program for school-age children (sports training, martial arts, dance and similar) that operates under the child care licensing exemption: Cabinet child abuse and neglect records check and an in-state criminal check (KRS 199.896(21)(e)); Optional, not required: volunteers with one-on-one patient, resident or client contact and access to their belongings or funds at a private long-term care or home-based care provider that has chosen to join the Kentucky National Background Check Program; fingerprint checks through KARES then apply, but a community or faith-based volunteer who is never alone with a resident is excluded (906 KAR 1:190, Section 2); Optional, not required: a school superintendent may require any other volunteer or visitor to submit to KSP and FBI fingerprint checks and a clear CA/N check (KRS 160.380(7)(d)); certified nonpublic schools may do the same (KRS 160.151(3)(b)); Optional, not required: an organization chartered by Congress or specified by the Attorney General may request conviction records for volunteers with supervisory or disciplinary power over a minor, and any volunteer may request a KSP name-based check on themselves and release it to the organization (KRS 17.160; 17.185); Optional, not required: volunteer fire departments, ambulance services and rescue squads may request a free felony-offender record check on applicants for membership (KRS 17.167).
• Check types in use: Fingerprint-supported KSP and FBI criminal history check with rap back through the Kentucky National Background Check Program (child care, child-caring facilities, participating long-term care providers); Child abuse and neglect central registry (CA/N) check, $10 through the Cabinet for Health and Family Services; Kentucky Sex Offender Registry and National Sex Offender Public Website checks; KSP name-based conviction record check, $20 by mail (KRS 17.160; KRS 17.185); Caregiver Misconduct Registry query for adult care volunteers (KRS 209.032); Other-state criminal, sex offender and child abuse registry checks for child care staff who lived elsewhere in the last five years (922 KAR 2:280, Section 5).
• Administered by: Cabinet for Health and Family Services (the Office of Inspector General runs the Kentucky National Background Check Program and KARES portal; the Division of Child Care runs child care checks through the NBCP; the Cabinet keeps the child abuse and neglect central registry and the Caregiver Misconduct Registry); Kentucky State Police (criminal history and sex offender registry); Administrative Office of the Courts (court conviction records).
• Typical processing: KSP name-based check by mail: about 10 business days; KARES long-term care: clear-for-hire notice 3–5 business days after fingerprints; child care NBCP: decision within 30 days of a complete application and fingerprint results.

Yes. Kentucky names certain professionals AND requires any person to report, regardless of profession — so your volunteers are covered by the universal provision whatever role they hold. Confirm Kentucky'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.

Kentucky charges no registration fee. Before soliciting, a charitable organization that must file a federal Form 990 files a copy of its most recent Form 990 with the Attorney General, and it files again each year it solicits, at the same time it files with the IRS (KRS 367.657(1), (3)). A new organization that has not yet filed a Form 990 files a notice of intent to solicit, which expires December 31 (KRS 367.657(2)); the Attorney General’s initial checklist also asks for the IRS determination letter and the bylaws and articles, or a Unified Registration Statement if no Form 990 has been filed yet. The Attorney General accepts Forms 990, 990-EZ, 990-PF and 990-N, and takes filings by mail only. There is no small-charity dollar exemption; the exemptions cover member-only appeals, religious organizations raising funds for religious purposes, schools soliciting their own alumni, faculty, students and families, and approved student-group or PTA solicitations for campus activities (KRS 367.660).

• Kentucky’s filing is a copy of your most recent Form 990 (990-N accepted) mailed to the Attorney General before you solicit and every year you solicit, with no fee and no small-charity exemption (KRS 367.657, 367.660).
• 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.