Bottom Line for Wyoming Nonprofits
- ✓Volunteers, substitutes and adult staff in DFS-licensed child care facilities during operating hours, plus household members 18 and older (Central Registry, sex offender registry, FBI fingerprint and state criminal history checks before working)
- ✓Volunteers and interns at DFS-certified group homes, residential treatment centers, crisis shelters and child-placing agencies (Central Registry check every year and FBI fingerprint check every five years)
- ✓Adult volunteers who may have unsupervised access to Medicaid Community Choices Waiver participants (screening every five years)
- +1 more required roles below
State Laws That Apply to Volunteer Background Checks
Voluntary Record Information Check and Volunteer Fee Cap
Wyo. Stat. §§ 7-19-106(c), (k)(ii), 7-19-108(a)Lets any person obtain a Division of Criminal Investigation fingerprint check of another person with proof of that person’s consent, filed through a Wyoming criminal justice agency. The fee is at most $15, and at most $10 when the applicant is an organization providing volunteer services to youth or victims of family violence and the check is solely to decide whether a prospective volunteer is suitable; DCI says the $10 check covers Wyoming and the Western Identification Network states only, not the FBI.
Child Care Licensing Background Checks
Wyo. Admin. Rules, Dep’t of Family Services, Child Care Licensing ch. 11, § 3(g)–(h) (effective Apr. 21, 2026)Owners, directors, adult staff, employees, substitutes and volunteers in the facility during operating hours, and household members 18 and older, must have Wyoming and out-of-state Central Registry checks, national and state sex offender registry checks, an FBI fingerprint check and state criminal history checks for every state lived in for the past five years on file before working. The Wyoming Central Registry and state sex offender registry checks repeat every year; the FBI, state criminal history and national sex offender registry checks every five years. Disqualifying offenses include felonies involving child or vulnerable-adult abuse, sexual offenses, violence, domestic violence, arson or animal cruelty, felony drug or alcohol offenses within 10 years, misdemeanor battery or assault, domestic violence, sexual, or child abuse, neglect or endangerment offenses (no time limit), and misdemeanor drug or DUI offenses within the last five years (a first misdemeanor DUI excluded); a pending deferred prosecution counts as well.
Community Choices Waiver Volunteer Screening
Wyo. Admin. Rules, Dep’t of Health, Medicaid ch. 34, § 10 (Community Choices Waiver)Community Choices Waiver providers must screen adult volunteers who may have unsupervised access to participants: a DFS Central Registry screen, an HHS-OIG exclusion search, a national name- and Social Security number-based criminal database search and a National Sex Offender Public Website search, repeated every five years. An individual convicted of a sexual offense may not volunteer, and volunteers under 18 must be directly supervised by someone who passed screening.
Who Must Be Screened in Wyoming
!Legally Required to Be Screened
- •Volunteers, substitutes and adult staff in DFS-licensed child care facilities during operating hours, plus household members 18 and older (Central Registry, sex offender registry, FBI fingerprint and state criminal history checks before working)
- •Volunteers and interns at DFS-certified group homes, residential treatment centers, crisis shelters and child-placing agencies (Central Registry check every year and FBI fingerprint check every five years)
- •Adult volunteers who may have unsupervised access to Medicaid Community Choices Waiver participants (screening every five years)
- •Volunteers with contact with children at state-funded domestic violence, sexual assault and victim-service programs (child abuse registry check before starting)
Optional — no Wyoming statute we found requires a check
- ◦youth-serving and family-violence volunteer organizations may request a Wyoming fingerprint check of a prospective volunteer for no more than $10
- ◦any organization whose volunteers may have unsupervised access to children or vulnerable adults may request a $10 DFS Central Registry screen with the volunteer’s consent
- ◦fire departments, ambulance services, fire protection districts and the military department may require volunteers to be fingerprinted for state and national checks
Types of Background Checks Required in Wyoming
How to Get Background Checks in Wyoming
$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 Wyoming law requires.
Start Free Today →Volunteer Screening in Wyoming: What You Need to Know
Wyoming releases criminal history to private requesters only against fingerprints: a Division of Criminal Investigation check of another person requires that person’s fingerprints and proof of consent satisfactory to DCI, filed through a Wyoming criminal justice agency (W.S. § 7-19-106(c), (k)). Its child abuse reporting law puts the duty on any person and names no professions (§ 14-3-205), and nonprofit summer camps and qualifying after-school programs are exempt from child care licensing (§ 14-4-102(b)(viii), (x)). Since July 1, 2026, a registered sex offender may not establish a residence within 1,000 feet of a licensed child care facility (§ 6-2-320(a)(v)), and unpaid volunteers of 501(c) nonprofits are personally immune except for willful or wanton misconduct, gross negligence or the negligent operation of a motor vehicle (§ 1-1-125(c)).
Compliance Tips for Wyoming Nonprofits
- 1
Licensed child care: have each volunteer’s Central Registry, sex offender registry, FBI fingerprint and state criminal history checks on file before the volunteer works in the facility, and repeat the Central Registry and state sex offender registry checks every year and the FBI check every five years (DFS Child Care Licensing Rules ch. 11, § 3(g)).
- 2
Youth-serving and family-violence volunteer organizations pay no more than $10 for a DCI fingerprint check of a prospective volunteer (W.S. § 7-19-108(a)(ii)); the check covers Wyoming and the WIN states only, requires the volunteer’s fingerprints and proof of consent satisfactory to DCI, and is filed through a Wyoming criminal justice agency (§ 7-19-106(k)).
- 3
Community Choices Waiver providers must rescreen adult volunteers with unsupervised access every five years and keep the results in employee files for the Department of Health (Medicaid Rules ch. 34, § 10(i), (l)).
- 4
Fire departments, ambulance services and fire protection districts may choose to require volunteers to be fingerprinted for state and national checks; the statute does not require it (W.S. § 7-19-201(a)(vii), (e)).
- 5
We found no Wyoming law limiting criminal-history questions on volunteer applications; for any check bought from a screening company, follow the federal FCRA disclosure and adverse-action steps, because Wyoming has no state consumer-reporting law of its own.
- 6
Train every volunteer that Wyoming requires any person to report suspected child abuse or neglect immediately to DFS or local law enforcement, and that telling a supervisor does not replace that personal duty (W.S. § 14-3-205(a)–(b)).
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Wyoming require background checks for my nonprofit’s volunteers?
Only for volunteers in specific roles or settings; no Wyoming rule covers every nonprofit. Wyoming has no general volunteer-screening law. Volunteers must be checked only in licensed or funded settings: DFS-licensed child care (Central Registry, sex offender registry, FBI fingerprint and state criminal history checks before working), DFS-certified group homes, residential treatment centers and child-placing agencies, the Medicaid Community Choices Waiver, and state-funded victim-service programs.
How long does a Wyoming volunteer background check take?
Official state checks: DCI fingerprint checks are generally completed within 2 weeks but can take 5–6 weeks depending on volume and fingerprint quality; DFS Central Registry screens currently take 6–7 business days. VolunteerBadge's national criminal search returns most results in minutes; a record that needs human FCRA review can take up to about 72 hours.