Skip to content

Camp director toolkit

Pennsylvania youth camp background check requirements

Pennsylvania has the most detailed volunteer clearance regime in the country, and almost none of it lives in the camp rules. The camp regulation is pure sanitation. Your screening duty comes from the Child Protective Services Law, which names youth and recreational camps explicitly — and it applies four different rules depending on whether a person is paid or unpaid and whether they are over or under 18.

Every statement below carries its source. Where we could not verify something, the page says so rather than guessing.

What Pennsylvania requires

Camps in Pennsylvania are regulated by PA Department of Health (camp registration) — clearances run through DHS and the State Police.

The camp regulation contains no screening requirement at all

Statute or regulation

The organized camps and campgrounds chapter is sanitation only — water, sewage, toilets, garbage. It contains no background check, staff qualification, ratio or training provision. Camp registration itself is a separate $10 per year registration with the Department of Health under a 1959 statute. If you have read the camp rules and concluded Pennsylvania asks nothing of you on screening, you have read the wrong chapter.

  • 28 Pa. Code Ch. 19 (Organized Camps and Campgrounds)
  • Act 497 of 1959, 35 P.S. §§ 3001–3004 (registration)

Camps are named explicitly in the Child Protective Services Law

Statute or regulation

The CPSL definition of a "program, activity or service" expressly includes "a youth camp or program" and "a recreational camp or program." That is the hook that pulls camps in regardless of how they are licensed or registered. The Department of Health has written to organized camps confirming that CPSL violations can result in sanctions against a camp’s registration — so this is enforceable through the thing you do hold.

  • 23 Pa.C.S. § 6303 (definitions)

Four different rules, depending on who the person is

Statute or regulation

Pennsylvania does not have one clearance rule — it has four, and the FBI fingerprint element differs for each: paid staff 18 and over; paid staff aged 14–17; unpaid volunteers 18 and over; and volunteers under 18. Volunteers under 18 need nothing. Paid staff aged 14–17 have their own FBI exemption, which requires an affidavit co-signed by a parent or guardian. Do not apply one rule across your whole roster — that is the most common way camps get this wrong.

  • 23 Pa.C.S. §§ 6344, 6344.2

A free volunteer clearance is legally invalid for a paid role

Statute or regulation

Pennsylvania offers volunteers free clearances. Those are not transferable to employment: an employer is prohibited from accepting a volunteer clearance for a paid position. If a seasonal counselor moves from unpaid to paid — which happens constantly at camps — their clearances must be redone under the paid rules.

  • 23 Pa.C.S. § 6344.2

Watch the child-care licensure boundary if you run long or serve young children

Regulator guidance

A Pennsylvania day camp avoids child care licensure only if it runs less than 90 consecutive days per calendar year, and only for school-age children. A camp serving children below kindergarten age does not get that exemption and may fall under child care licensing, which is a substantially heavier regime.

  • OCDEL Announcement C-26-01 (10 June 2026)

Fees change on 1 October 2026

Regulator guidance

The volunteer FBI fingerprint fee rises from $22.95 to $25.95 effective 1 October 2026. If you budget your season in the autumn, budget at the new figure.

What we could not verify

  • The exact renewal interval and the 10-year residency provision governing the FBI fingerprint exemption for volunteers. Pennsylvania’s conditions here are genuinely intricate and we did not verify them to the level a director should rely on — read the DHS bulletin directly or call the clearance line.
  • The full disqualifying-offence list and how the "provisional employment" window applies to seasonal camp hiring.
  • Whether the camp registration fee or process has changed since the 1959 statute — we verified the statute, not the current DOH page.

We publish these rather than filling the gap with a plausible answer. Confirm with the regulator or your counsel before relying on anything in this section.

When to start, so everyone clears before opening day

The most common screening failure at camps is not a bad policy — it is starting in May. A clear result usually returns in minutes, but anything that surfaces a possible record goes to human review, and a seasonal hiring wave arrives all at once.

  1. 1

    November – December

    Budget for screening every adult on site, not just counselors. Confirm what your insurer requires — carriers serving camps often expect a written child-protection policy as a condition of abuse coverage.

  2. 2

    January – February

    Write or refresh the policy: which roles get which depth of check, the two-adult rule, and who a concern gets reported to. Decide disqualifying offences now, not case by case in June.

  3. 3

    March – April

    Screen returning staff first — they are the easiest to reach and the fastest to clear. Send invites as offers go out rather than batching them.

  4. 4

    May

    Screen the late hires: kitchen, maintenance, weekend and short-term volunteers. This is the group most often missed.

  5. 5

    Opening week

    Run the roster one final time and confirm nobody is serving unscreened. Diary next season now.

Free resources for Pennsylvania camp directors

Everything here is free to use and none of it requires an account with us.

From VolunteerBadge, also free

This is not legal advice

We are a consumer reporting agency, not a law firm. State camp regulation changes, and local health departments frequently add requirements beyond the state rule. Treat this page as a starting point and a set of citations to check — not as a compliance determination. If a requirement matters to your accreditation or your insurance, confirm it with PA Department of Health (camp registration) — clearances run through DHS and the State Police or your counsel.

Other states

Screen your camp staff for $5

FCRA-compliant checks, identity verification and the full adverse-action workflow. No platform fee, no contract, no minimum — so screening everyone on site stops being a budget decision.

Create a free account See what we check