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District weighs fingerprinting vs. $15 vendor for volunteer and chaperone background checks under SB 676
Summary
Chief Montgomery told the board that Senate Bill 676 (2023) requires expanded background screening for volunteers and chaperones; the district's committees favor a $15-per-person vendor screening over fingerprinting ($65) on equity and cost grounds, with demonstrations of Raptor and Navigate360 scheduled and a recommendation targeted for October.
Chief Montgomery told the Citrus County School Board that Senate Bill 676, passed in 2023, requires districts to expand background screening for anyone affiliated with schools as volunteers or chaperones. The district has convened two committees to evaluate how to comply while balancing cost and operational impact.
"Senate bill 6 76 in 2023 required that school districts or certain, organizations adapted their background screening processes for any affiliation to the organization," Montgomery told the board, laying out the statutory driver for change. Montgomery described two implementation options: traditional fingerprint-based checks (which she said retain fingerprints for five years and cost about $65 per person) and a volunteer-management vendor that runs a level-2 background screening annually for approximately $15 per person. Montgomery said the volunteer-management option was the committee—s preferred path.
Montgomery described the operational differences: the fingerprinting process provides arrest notifications between screenings but is more expensive; the vendor system purges records automatically, delivers weekly reports to district staff, and would require an annual renewal step for volunteers. She said district committees will watch demonstrations from two vendors — Raptor and Navigate360 — to see which product can combine visitor management, drill management and volunteer management. "There's not very many vendors that encompass all 3 of those areas," she said.
Staff emphasized equity concerns and operational workload. Montgomery said fingerprinting costs have reduced volunteer numbers in some districts; the $15-per-person option, by contrast, was viewed by committee members as more affordable and equitable for district volunteers. She set a goal to complete the process by October and said grandfathered volunteers already approved would be folded into the new process when implemented.
Board members probed logistics: whether parents who attend a public, one-off classroom event are considered visitors or volunteers, how payment to vendors would be handled (district invoicing vs direct payment), and timelines for clearance (staff estimated vendor screenings typically return results in two to three days, with a district practice of requiring up to three weeks for planning). Montgomery said principals would retain discretion to authorize chaperones and that the district will keep coaches and other positions that already use fingerprinting in place.
What happens next District committees will run vendor demonstrations (Raptor and Navigate360) and return recommendations to the board. Staff said volunteers already authorized remain allowed to serve for now, but the district will eventually require those volunteers to complete whatever level-2 screening the new process adopts.
