Bottom Line for Indiana Nonprofits
- ✓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)
State Laws That Apply to Volunteer Background Checks
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 20-26-14-9Requires 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 Must Be Screened in Indiana
!Legally Required to Be Screened
- •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 — no Indiana statute we found requires a check
- ◦any organization that provides care may request an FBI fingerprint check on a volunteer through the Indiana State Police (IC 10-13-3-39)
Types of Background Checks Required in Indiana
How to Get Background Checks in Indiana
$5 per check — a national criminal database search, sex offender registries in all 50 states and an SSN trace, with human FCRA review when a record needs it. It never replaces a check Indiana law requires.
Start Free Today →Volunteer Screening in Indiana: What You Need to Know
Indiana’s 2025 child care laws let supervised students aged 15 or older start volunteering before finishing training; they did not change background checks. The ISP qualified-entity route (IC 10-13-3-39) mirrors the federal National Child Protection Act and authorizes, but does not require, fingerprint checks. Indiana regulates private screening companies directly: unless the requester is legally required to get them, they may not knowingly report expunged, court-restricted or reduced-to-misdemeanor records, or records missing material changes made 60 or more days earlier (IC 24-4-18). Indiana widened the felony barring sex offenders from working or volunteering around children on July 1, 2025 and again on July 1, 2026 (IC 35-42-4-10).
Compliance Tips for Indiana Nonprofits
- 1
Under IC 12-17.2, a childcare volunteer who may be present during operating hours faces the same fingerprint rule as paid staff — do not skip the background check process assuming volunteers are exempt simply because they are unpaid.
- 2
Set a 3-year renewal calendar for each childcare volunteer's full background check, and schedule annual CPI and sex offender registry re-runs between cycles to satisfy FSSA requirements.
- 3
For high school volunteer coaches the check is required by statute: a school corporation, charter high school or nonpublic high school must run an expanded criminal history check before the person coaches (IC 20-26-14-9).
- 4
If you use the ISP fingerprint route as a qualified entity (IC 10-13-3-39), submit the request within three months after the volunteer starts. The check itself is optional, so the deadline applies only if you choose this route.
- 5
We found no Indiana statute requiring written consent for every background check. Written consent is required for a child care provider to see a volunteer’s Child Protection Index record (IC 31-33-26-16), and federal FCRA rules apply to screening-company reports. Indiana also makes it unlawful to discriminate because of an expunged or sealed record (IC 35-38-9-10).
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Indiana require background checks for my nonprofit’s volunteers?
Only for volunteers in specific roles or settings; no Indiana rule covers every nonprofit. 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).
How long does a Indiana volunteer background check take?
Official state checks: 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. VolunteerBadge's national criminal search returns most results in minutes; a record that needs human FCRA review can take up to about 72 hours.