Do music and dance teachers need background checks?

It depends on your state and setting. California requires a Child Performer Services Permit — with a fingerprint-based check — for many people who provide acting, singing, dance or voice instruction to minors for a fee, and its youth-service-organization law requires checks for regular adult volunteers at covered organizations — which, in our reading, may include arts nonprofits. Pennsylvania’s clearance law covers enrichment programs sponsored by organizations. Everywhere, screening every adult with access to young performers is best practice.

How should private lessons be set up safely?

Keep them visible: rooms with windows or open doors, lessons scheduled when others are in the building, parents welcome to observe, and a clear policy before any lesson happens in a private home. These apply the CDC’s guidance on preventing one-on-one isolation.

Free guide · 2026 edition · For youth theater, music, dance and arts programs

Behind the Curtain: A screening and safeguarding playbook for youth theater, music, dance and arts programs

The state laws that already reach arts instructors, and practical safeguards for private lessons, dressing rooms, late rehearsals and tours.

By the VolunteerBadge research team · Published September 11, 2026

Written for youth theaters, choirs, orchestras, dance studios and private music teachers
California, New York and Pennsylvania rules explained
A pre-season safeguarding checklist and a letter to performers’ families
Sources from California’s permit law to the NEA’s data on arts lessons

Who Behind the Curtain is for

Directors of community and youth theaters, choir and orchestra leaders, dance studio owners, private music and voice teachers, arts camp directors, after-school arts nonprofits, and the parent volunteers who run costumes and backstage.

44%

of U.S. fifth-graders were taking arts classes or lessons outside school, their parents reported.

National Endowment for the Arts, 2025

16+ hrs

a month (or 32+ a year) of direct contact makes an adult volunteer at a California youth service organization “regular” — and subject to a background check.

Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §18975

1 per 20

children under 16, at minimum, must have a responsible adult when New York child performers are employed as a group.

12 NYCRR §186-4.6

From the Behind the Curtain executive summary

Six things to settle before the next rehearsal

1
Arts settings create the moments safety guidance warns about.
One-on-one time, changing clothes, late nights and overnight trips.
2
Some states already reach arts instructors.
California requires a fingerprint-based permit for many who give acting, singing, dance or voice instruction to minors for a fee.
3
Youth-organization laws may cover you.
Even if they never mention theater or music.
4
Private lessons need design, not just trust.
Windows, open doors and shared spaces.
5
References matter as much as records.
A history of concerns often lives in a former employer’s memory, not a database.
6
Screen everyone with access.
Accompanists, crew, dressers, chaperones and drivers — not just the director.

Inside Behind the Curtain, chapter by chapter

01
Close mentoring, deliberate safeguards
The risks, the California, New York and Pennsylvania rules and the fixes, on one page.
02
Why arts programs carry particular risks
What the CDC flags, and where arts programs meet it.
03
What the record shows
A national inquiry into music schools and a U.S. case.
04
California: the Child Performer Services Permit
Who needs one, what it checks, exemptions and open questions.
05
California: youth service organizations
Regular-volunteer checks and the two-mandated-reporter rule.
06
New York: child performers and responsible adults
The permit rule and the responsible-adult requirement.
07
Pennsylvania: enrichment programs and clearances
Why arts programs fit the law’s definitions.
08
National arts organizations and SafeSport
EdTA, USA Dance, choral events and the federal sports law.
09
Safer rooms: lessons, dressing rooms, rehearsals and tours
Six practical safeguards.
10
From private instructors to front-of-house
From private instructors to front-of-house.
11
References: the check a database can’t run
Better reference questions and practical rules.
12
One screened roster for a production
One roster for every adult in your production.
A
Appendix A: Youth arts safeguarding checklist
Use before each season and production.
B
Appendix B: Letter to families: how we keep young performers safe
How we keep young performers safe.
C
Appendix C: Every statute, report and study cited
Related guides, plus every statute, report and study behind the findings.

Get the free guide

Questions Behind the Curtain answers

Do music and dance teachers need background checks?: It depends on your state and setting. California requires a Child Performer Services Permit — with a fingerprint-based check — for many people who provide acting, singing, dance or voice instruction to minors for a fee, and its youth-service-organization law requires checks for regular adult volunteers at covered organizations — which, in our reading, may include arts nonprofits. Pennsylvania’s clearance law covers enrichment programs sponsored by organizations. Everywhere, screening every adult with access to young performers is best practice.
How should private lessons be set up safely?: Keep them visible: rooms with windows or open doors, lessons scheduled when others are in the building, parents welcome to observe, and a clear policy before any lesson happens in a private home. These apply the CDC’s guidance on preventing one-on-one isolation.

Beyond Behind the Curtain

VolunteerBadge is owned and operated by ScreenForge Labs, LLC, an FCRA-regulated Consumer Reporting Agency that has obtained its FCRA Certificate from the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA). This guide is general educational information and is not legal advice. Laws change; this guide's sources were checked as of September 11, 2026.