Bottom Line for New York Nonprofits
- ✓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)
- +2 more required roles below
State Laws That Apply to Volunteer Background Checks
New York Mental Hygiene Law § 31.35 — Background Checks for Mental Health Providers
N.Y. Mental Hyg. Law § 31.35Requires 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 § 16.33Requires 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-BEvery 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 § 553Grants 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 Must Be Screened in New York
!Legally Required to Be Screened
- •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
Types of Background Checks Required in New York
How to Get Background Checks in New York
$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 New York law requires.
Start Free Today →Volunteer Screening in New York: What You Need to Know
New York's volunteer screening landscape is fragmented by sector, with strong mandates in healthcare and disability services but limited requirements for general youth-serving organizations. The state's large nonprofit sector (particularly in healthcare and social services) and heavy concentration of OPWDD-licensed providers make this a high-priority compliance area. 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.
Compliance Tips for New York Nonprofits
- 1
Determine whether your organization is a 'covered provider' under Justice Center jurisdiction — covered settings are OMH, OPWDD and OASAS facilities; OCFS juvenile-justice and licensed residential programs (not foster homes or domestic-violence programs); certain adult homes; camps for children with developmental disabilities; and state and approved residential special-education schools. A Staff Exclusion List check is required before any employee, intern, volunteer or contractor gets potential for regular and substantial contact, and a Justice Center fingerprint check is required for those with regular and substantial unsupervised or unrestricted physical contact in OMH, OPWDD and OCFS residential programs.
- 2
For childcare programs, clearances run through OCFS, which pays the fingerprint processing fee; FBI results are not released to non-public entities.
- 3
State fingerprinting does not reach school volunteers (NYSED); volunteers with direct student contact are covered by Article 23-B child-abuse-in-an-educational-setting reporting (Educ. Law §§ 1125(4), 1126).
- 4
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. A ‘regular volunteer’ is 18 or older with direct responsibility for minors more than 16 hours a month or 32 hours a year; the Attorney General could seek civil penalties up to $10,000 per violation; it would take effect 180 days after becoming law.
- 5
For child day care, § 390-b(2)(a) names four clearances for a prospective volunteer with the potential for unsupervised contact: a DCJS criminal history check, an FBI fingerprint check, a New York sex offender registry search and an SCR database check; § 390-b(1) also lists criminal, sex offender and child abuse registry searches in any other state where the person lived during the preceding five years, if applicable. OCFS runs these clearances — confirm with OCFS which searches it conducts for your volunteers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does New York require background checks for my nonprofit’s volunteers?
Only for volunteers in specific roles or settings; no New York rule covers every nonprofit. 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.
How long does a New York volunteer background check take?
Official state checks: 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. VolunteerBadge's national criminal search returns most results in minutes; a record that needs human FCRA review can take up to about 72 hours.