Texas Volunteer Background Check Requirements

A school district, open-enrollment charter school or shared services arrangement shall obtain criminal history record information from DPS on every volunteer and written volunteer applicant — the statute has no student-contact limit — and may add a check from another criminal justice agency or an FCRA-regulated consumer reporting agency. A commercial check can be added on top of the DPS check but can't replace it. The volunteer must show a government photo ID and may not serve until both steps are done. Exempt: a parent, guardian or grandparent of an enrolled child; a volunteer accompanied by a district employee; and a single-event volunteer. Districts may still check exempt volunteers, and may charge volunteers the cost. Private schools may obtain records but aren't required to.

Part of a broader bill aligning state background-check statutes with FBI criteria for using and destroying criminal history information. For school volunteers it amended § 22.0835(f), which now lets a district obtain criminal history from DPS — not just from other law enforcement agencies — on volunteers who fall under the parent, accompanied or single-event exemptions. Effective June 13, 2023.

Licensed and registered child-care operations must submit people for background checks under HHSC Child Care Regulation rules, including a DFPS central registry check and a criminal history check (with FBI fingerprints for many roles). The rule reaches people 14 and older, volunteers included — for example, a volunteer who is regularly or frequently present at an operation (26 TAC § 745.605(a)(7)) — with limited exceptions, such as a parent who only supplements ratios on a field trip.

A nonprofit program that regularly provides athletic, civic or cultural activities to people under 17 is entitled to obtain DPS criminal history on its volunteers and volunteer applicants — but may use it only to decide suitability, may not keep it in any file, and must destroy it promptly (§ 411.1401). DPS-certified volunteer centers that refer volunteers to other nonprofits have similar access (§ 411.126).

Applies to grantees of HHSC's Family Support Services programs — not to every Texas HHS grantee; the HHS-wide grant terms contain no volunteer background-check requirement. Since Sept. 1, 2024, those grantees run their own name-based criminal history check and DFPS central registry check on every new hire and volunteer before direct contact with children or families, add an FBI fingerprint check for anyone who has lived outside Texas in the last five years, and renew at least every 24 months.

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

Only for volunteers in specific roles or settings; no Texas rule covers every nonprofit. Texas has no statewide mandate to screen every nonprofit volunteer, but several sector laws are strict. Public school districts, open-enrollment charter schools and shared services arrangements must obtain a Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) criminal history check on every volunteer before they serve — unless the volunteer is a parent, guardian or grandparent of an enrolled student, will be accompanied by a district employee, or is volunteering for a single event (Tex. Educ. Code § 22.0835).

How long does a Texas volunteer background check take?

Official state checks: DPS Conviction Name Search: usually a few seconds online ($3 per search); fingerprint checks through IdentoGO: about 10 business days once DPS receives the request (per a DPS FAQ archived May 2026). VolunteerBadge's national criminal search returns most results in minutes; a record that needs human FCRA review can take up to about 72 hours.