Bottom Line for Montana Nonprofits
- ✓Anyone, volunteers included, who will have unsupervised contact with students of a public school district in school, at school-sponsored activities or in transit (fingerprint-based national check through educator licensure or reviewed by the district, since July 1, 2025; Mont. Code Ann. § 20-3-323(1)(d))
- ✓Volunteers who work in licensed child care centers or registered family and group child care homes (DOJ and FBI fingerprint check before working, plus registry, child protective services and name checks; DPHHS rules, ARM 37.95.161 as printed in 2021, now ARM 37.96.10)
- ✓Everyone associated with a private alternative adolescent residential or outdoor program who has direct access to participants (DOJ and FBI fingerprint and child protection check; § 52-2-805(1)(a))
- +3 more required roles below
State Laws That Apply to Volunteer Background Checks
Student Protection Policy (HB 745, 2025)
Mont. Code Ann. §§ 20-3-323(1)(d), 20-3-324(30)Since July 1, 2025, each school district’s trustees must adopt a student protection policy requiring that, before the district allows any individual, regardless of employment status, unsupervised contact with students in school, at a school-sponsored activity or in transit to one, the individual has a fingerprint-based national criminal history check, either under educator licensure or through the Montana Department of Justice with the results reviewed by the trustees, superintendent or a designee. A district that fails to implement its policy must file a correction plan with the Office of Public Instruction. The law sets no recheck cycle and does not say who pays.
Child Care Background Checks
Mont. Code Ann. §§ 52-2-721, 52-2-723; ARM 37.95.161 (DPHHS 2021 printing; now ARM 37.96.10)Day-care centers are licensed and family and group day-care homes registered, with no license fee. DPHHS rules require a Montana DOJ and FBI fingerprint check before working in a child care facility, renewed every five years in the 2021 rule text, plus Montana and national sex offender registry, child protective services and name-based criminal checks for every state lived in during the prior five years, before work and annually. DPHHS has since moved these rules to ARM 37.96, so confirm the current cycle.
Child and Adult Protective Services Screening Checks
Mont. Code Ann. §§ 41-3-205(3)(o), 41-3-203(3), 52-3-813(2)(f)(iii), 52-3-814(2)Any person or entity screening current or prospective employees or volunteers who may have unsupervised contact with children may request, in writing, substantiated child abuse or neglect findings from DPHHS, and a provider of services to vulnerable adults may request similar adult protective services information on volunteers with unsupervised contact. These checks are voluntary, and an organization that refuses or dismisses a volunteer in good faith based on them is immune from civil liability.
Youth Residential Programs
Mont. Code Ann. §§ 52-2-805(1)(a), 50-5-248(2)(f), 52-2-622(4)Private alternative adolescent residential or outdoor programs must fingerprint each person associated with the program who has direct access to participants for a DOJ and FBI criminal and child protection check. A 2025 law directs DPHHS to require fingerprint checks for anyone with regular access to patients at youth residential treatment centers, including staff and volunteers (rule adoption unconfirmed), and youth foster home license applicants are fingerprinted.
Who Must Be Screened in Montana
!Legally Required to Be Screened
- •Anyone, volunteers included, who will have unsupervised contact with students of a public school district in school, at school-sponsored activities or in transit (fingerprint-based national check through educator licensure or reviewed by the district, since July 1, 2025; Mont. Code Ann. § 20-3-323(1)(d))
- •Volunteers who work in licensed child care centers or registered family and group child care homes (DOJ and FBI fingerprint check before working, plus registry, child protective services and name checks; DPHHS rules, ARM 37.95.161 as printed in 2021, now ARM 37.96.10)
- •Everyone associated with a private alternative adolescent residential or outdoor program who has direct access to participants (DOJ and FBI fingerprint and child protection check; § 52-2-805(1)(a))
- •Staff and volunteers with regular access to patients at licensed youth residential treatment centers (fingerprint checks DPHHS must require by rule under the 2025 law, § 50-5-248(2)(f); whether DPHHS has adopted those rules is unconfirmed)
- •Youth foster home license applicants (criminal, child protection and DOJ and FBI fingerprint check; § 52-2-622(4))
- •CASA special advocates (application with required background information and a screening interview before appointment; the statute names no criminal, registry or fingerprint check; § 41-3-112(2))
Optional — no Montana statute we found requires a check
- ◦nursing home, assisted living and adult day care volunteers (we found no statute requiring checks; assisted living facilities must check new employees under § 50-5-225, and DPHHS releases adult protective services findings to service providers on written request under § 52-3-813)
- ◦church, camp, youth sports, mentoring, nonpublic school and other nonprofit volunteers (we found no Montana statute requiring checks; screening is organization policy)
Types of Background Checks Required in Montana
How to Get Background Checks in Montana
$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 Montana law requires.
Start Free Today →Volunteer Screening in Montana: What You Need to Know
Montana treats convictions, deferred sentences, deferred prosecutions and initial arrest records as public criminal justice information with no restriction on dissemination (Mont. Code Ann. §§ 44-5-103(13), 44-5-301), so anyone can buy a Montana DOJ name-based search. Records of a deferred sentence that has been dismissed become confidential (§ 46-18-204), arrests that never led to a conviction are removed, and a person may expunge misdemeanors once in a lifetime (§ 46-18-1104). Montana’s own consumer reporting law bars reporting any arrest, indictment or conviction more than seven years old, counted from disposition, release or parole, with no salary exception (§ 31-3-112(5)). A 2025 law put Montana’s child abuse central registry into statute, and a listing may affect a person’s ability to volunteer with children (§ 41-3-901), and officers, directors and volunteers of 501(c) nonprofits are personally immune except for willful or wanton misconduct (§ 27-1-732).
Compliance Tips for Montana Nonprofits
- 1
Public schools: before any volunteer, coach or chaperone has unsupervised contact with students, obtain a fingerprint-based national check through the Montana DOJ and have the trustees, superintendent or a designee review it (§ 20-3-323(1)(d)); the law turns on unsupervised contact, so keep other volunteers supervised.
- 2
HB 745 sets no recheck cycle and does not say who pays, so write both into the district’s student protection policy.
- 3
Licensed or registered child care: send volunteers through DPHHS Child Care Licensing’s FBI fingerprint process before they start (DPHHS says fingerprinting is free at Spark Montana locations), and confirm the current renewal cycle in ARM 37.96.10.
- 4
For an FBI check of a youth-serving volunteer, write Volunteer and the role in the Reason Fingerprinted field to get the Montana DOJ’s $25 NCPA/VCA fee instead of $30, and first confirm with Montana Criminal Records (406-444-3625) that your organization qualifies.
- 5
Request a DPHHS child protective services check with the notarized DPHHS release for the volunteer’s category (CFS-400 for most volunteers; DPHHS says there is currently no cost); DPHHS reports only whether information indicates a risk to children, and it will not process a release notarized more than six months earlier.
- 6
Montana’s 1975 consumer reporting law bars reporting arrests, charges and convictions more than seven years old, counted from disposition, release or parole (§ 31-3-112(5)); whether federal law preempts it is unsettled, so ask counsel how it applies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Montana require background checks for my nonprofit’s volunteers?
Only for volunteers in specific roles or settings; no Montana rule covers every nonprofit. Montana has no general volunteer background check law; checks are required by setting. Since July 1, 2025, every public school district must require a fingerprint-based national background check, through educator licensure or reviewed by the district, before anyone, employee or not, has unsupervised contact with students at school, school activities or in transit (Mont. Code Ann. § 20-3-323(1)(d), HB 745).
How long does a Montana volunteer background check take?
Official state checks: Not published by Montana DOJ; CHOPRS name-based searches are requested online, mail-in requests go to Montana Criminal Records in Helena, and DPHHS will not process a CPS release notarized more than six months earlier. VolunteerBadge's national criminal search returns most results in minutes; a record that needs human FCRA review can take up to about 72 hours.