Illinois Volunteer Background Check Requirements

Requires background checks for healthcare workers with direct patient contact. The Act expressly covers individuals hired, employed or retained whether paid or on a volunteer basis. A health care employer must initiate a fingerprint-based check when it makes a conditional offer, may not hire or retain someone with a listed conviction without a waiver, and may not use someone in direct care who has a Health Care Worker Registry or Adult Protective Services Registry finding.

Requires a comprehensive background check for every volunteer of a licensed day care facility aged 18 or older and, with a parent’s authorization, every volunteer aged 14 through 17: ISP and FBI fingerprints, the DCFS State Central Register, the Illinois and national sex offender registries, and the registries of every state lived in during the past five years, repeated at least every five years. Parental involvement does not require a check unless the parent fills a required staff position.

Requires a comprehensive fingerprint-based background check for foster and host home household members aged 18 and older and for anyone — including employees, volunteers and contractors — whose activities involve caring for or supervising the home’s children or who has unsupervised access to them; household members aged 13 through 17 who are not employees or volunteers get a partial check.

Makes it a Class 4 felony for a child sex offender to knowingly operate, manage, be employed by, volunteer at, be associated with, or knowingly be present at a facility whose programs serve only people under 18, a day care center, day care home or group day care home, a part day child care facility, a child care institution, or a school’s before- and after-school programs. The Illinois State Police must publish the Statewide Sex Offender Database online (730 ILCS 152/115).

Requires every child welfare agency and congregate care facility (youth emergency shelters, youth transitional housing, child care institutions, maternity centers, group homes and secure child care facilities) to run a comprehensive check — ISP and FBI fingerprints, the DCFS State Central Register, the abuse and neglect registry of each state lived in during the past five years, and the Illinois and national sex offender registries — on all volunteers, every employee regardless of whether they have contact with children, replacement staff, contractors with access to children and all interns. No one may receive a start date until the employer receives the entire result.

Requires every park district to have each volunteer in a recreational program offered to children complete a written application before beginning any work, including a question on whether the applicant has been convicted of or found to be a child sex offender (a parent or legal guardian may complete it for a volunteer under 18). A park district may not knowingly engage a child sex offender as a volunteer and must end the service on discovery; a current volunteer later convicted must immediately disclose it.

Does Illinois require background checks for my nonprofit’s volunteers?

Only for volunteers in specific roles or settings; no Illinois rule covers every nonprofit. Illinois does not have a universal volunteer background check mandate, but sector-specific statutes and regulations create mandatory screening requirements in childcare, healthcare, and programs serving people with disabilities.

How long does a Illinois volunteer background check take?

Official state checks: UCIA conviction requests: ISP must respond within 2 weeks by statute (20 ILCS 2635/6); licensed day care background checks must be completed within 45 days (23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010.10(f)). VolunteerBadge's national criminal search returns most results in minutes; a record that needs human FCRA review can take up to about 72 hours.