Wisconsin School Moves Toward Background Checks for Volunteers

Wausau School District in Wisconsin depends on volunteers for nearly all aspects of the education process - school field trips to classroom activities. The district is proud to have some many caring parents and members of the community willing to volunteer to be more involved in their schools.

But allowing anybody access to work with the children means the schools must have strong mechanisms for screening and checking on all the people who will be working directly with students.

Wausau School District means to perform background checks on classroom volunteers. Though these checks are no a foolproof way of protecting the students, they're a prudent additional layer of security.

"Volunteers in our schools are important," said co-Assistant superintendent Bruce Anderson. "We value their role, and balance that by having everyone who is in contact with children have clearance through a background check."