Nonprofit compliance in New York

New York does not have a single universal volunteer background check mandate, but sector-specific laws create requirements for volunteers at children’s camps (state and national sex offender registry searches), in child day care, and in Justice Center settings serving people with mental illness or developmental disabilities; the state does not fingerprint school volunteers. The Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs administers fingerprint checks for OMH, OPWDD and OCFS residential providers. The OCFS administers checks for childcare volunteers. S5257C/A6568B (proposed General Business Law § 398-h) passed both houses May 28–29, 2026 and has not been delivered to the Governor. It would require sex-offender-registry searches (New York, states lived in during the prior five years, and the national NSOPW) — not criminal checks — for employees, regular volunteers, contractors and operators of youth service providers, before they start and every five years.

• New York Mental Hygiene Law § 31.35 — Background Checks for Mental Health Providers (N.Y. Mental Hyg. Law § 31.35) — Requires criminal history record checks for prospective operators, employees, and volunteers of mental health treatment providers who will have regular and substantial unsupervised or unrestricted physical contact with clients. Administered by the Justice Center.
• New York Mental Hygiene Law § 16.33 — OPWDD Provider Checks (N.Y. Mental Hyg. Law § 16.33) — Requires providers approved or authorized by OPWDD to request, through the Justice Center, a state and FBI criminal history check of each prospective operator, employee or volunteer who will have regular and substantial unsupervised or unrestricted physical contact with clients (14 NYCRR Part 701).
• New York Social Services Law § 390-B — Childcare Background Checks (N.Y. Soc. Serv. Law § 390-B) — Every prospective employee, director, operator, and prospective volunteer with the potential for unsupervised contact with children in a child day care program or enrolled legally-exempt provider needs DCJS and FBI fingerprint, New York sex offender registry and Statewide Central Register (SCR) database clearances, repeated at least every five years. OCFS pays the fingerprint processing fee, and FBI results are not released to non-public entities.
• New York Executive Law § 553 — Justice Center Authority (N.Y. Exec. Law § 553) — Grants the Justice Center authority to review and evaluate criminal history for any person applying as an employee, volunteer, or consultant for whom a criminal background check is required by law, for facilities or provider agencies operated, licensed, or certified by OMH, OPWDD, or OCFS.
• New York Education Law §§ 305(30), 3035 — School Employee Fingerprinting (Volunteers Excluded) (N.Y. Educ. Law §§ 305(30), 3035, 1125(3)) — Requires fingerprint-based DCJS/FBI clearance of prospective employees (paid positions) of school districts, charter schools and BOCES; nonpublic schools may opt in; § 305(30) does not apply to New York City. Volunteers are not covered — NYSED lists ‘Volunteer — No’ among the situations where fingerprinting is not allowed.
• Who it reaches: Volunteers who will have regular and substantial unsupervised or unrestricted physical contact with clients of OMH- and OPWDD-certified providers or OCFS residential programs for children (Justice Center fingerprint check); Prospective volunteers with the potential for unsupervised contact with children in licensed or registered child day care programs or enrolled legally-exempt providers, plus every operator, director and employee; School volunteers with direct student contact: no state fingerprinting, but covered by the Education Law Article 23-B child-abuse-in-an-educational-setting procedures (§§ 1125(4), 1126); Volunteers who will have the potential for regular and substantial contact with service recipients at Justice Center facilities and SCR provider agencies (Staff Exclusion List check); Every children’s camp employee and volunteer: New York sex offender registry search through DCJS and a national sex offender registry search, before starting and every year.
• Check types in use: New York State criminal history record check (DCJS); FBI national fingerprint-based criminal history check; New York Sex Offender Registry check; Statewide Central Register (SCR) child abuse and maltreatment check; Sex offender registries from prior states of residence (5 years).
• Administered by: Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs (mental health/disability); NYS Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) for childcare (CCDBG checks); NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) for criminal history records; local school districts for school volunteers.
• Typical processing: OCA statewide name and date-of-birth search: $95, processed the next business day after receipt; DCJS personal record review: $17.50 (in-state), mailed in three to four weeks.

New York is one of the 39 states that generally require a charitable organization to register before soliciting contributions from its residents — typically before the first ask, not after the first gift, and usually with an annual renewal.

• Registration is generally required before soliciting, including by mail, phone, email, or a public donate page.
• 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.