At FIRST ®, the safety and well-being of our participants are at the heart of everything we do. While the FIRST ® Youth Protection Program (YPP) includes a background check (for those located within the U.S. & Canada) and YPP training, certain states require additional steps to comply with their laws for volunteers in youth-serving organizations.
To this end, we are sharing information about the additional steps required for FIRST volunteers in Pennsylvania and California, as required by each state. If you are planning to volunteer in these states, it is important to know about these specific requirements to ensure compliance and contribute to a safe environment for FIRST youth participants. The additional local state requirements must be completed in addition to a FIRST required background check (U.S. and Canada) and YPP training, which are part of the FIRST Youth Protection Program for coaches, mentors, and event volunteers.
California Volunteer Requirements
Assembly Bill 506 (AB 506) requires administrators, employees, and regular volunteers of youth service organizations to complete training in child abuse and neglect identification and reporting, in addition to obtaining a fingerprint-based Live Scan background check.
Under AB 506, a regular volunteer is defined as an adult who volunteers: 16 hours or more per month, or 32 hours or more per year. This applies to all coaches and mentors, and event volunteers exceeding the hours threshold. California requires all volunteers with direct contact with or supervision of youth to complete:
- Live Scan Background Check : A fingerprint-based check through the California Department of Justice to identify any criminal history in compliance with state law. Live Scan background checks are not transferable between organizations. You will need to complete this process for each organization you volunteer with that requires it. The cost of the Live Scan background check is the volunteer’s responsibility. This is a one-time requirement to volunteer for FIRST . California volunteers should complete the Live Scan process at an approved location. Locate a nearby pre-negotiated provider or any authorized Live Scan provider in the state.
Live Scan instructions- Mandated Reporter Training : Training on recognizing and reporting child abuse, as required by California law. This is a one-time requirement. If you’ve already completed this specific training for another organization, you do not need to retake it. You can simply associate your existing certificate with our FIRST account. To complete the training, please go to the Mandated Reporter Training website. Make sure to click on the robot icon (shown below) from the selections.
Pennsylvania Volunteer Requirements
Pennsylvania Law (Act 153) aims to protect children by requiring comprehensive background checks for adults who interact with minors in both paid and volunteer roles. This law requires that all qualifying individuals must obtain child abuse clearances. Additionally, these criminal clearances must be renewed at least every five years to maintain up-to-date safety standards.
PA Act 153 mandates that all adults volunteering with minors complete the following clearances. Instructions and other helpful materials can be found on the YPP webpage under the Local YPP State Requirements for California and Pennsylvania section.
- Pennsylvania State Police Criminal Record Check: Verifies any criminal history within Pennsylvania.
- Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Clearance: Conducted by the Department of Human Services to check for any history of child abuse.
- FBI Fingerprint-Based Federal Criminal History: Required for volunteers who have not been continuous residents of Pennsylvania for the past 10 years.
4.Those who meet the residency requirement may instead submit a signed attestation in lieu of the fingerprint requirement. You can find the attestation form on the* YPP webpage under the CA/PA Local State Requirements section.These clearances are valid for at least five years and are transferable between organizations (i.e., if you did them for another organization in Pennsylvania, you can transfer them to FIRST ). Volunteers should ensure their certifications are current (within five years) before participating in any FIRST events in Pennsylvania. Detailed instructions and resources for obtaining these clearances can be found on the YPP webpage under the Local YPP State Requirements for California and Pennsylvania section.
Out-of-State Volunteers: If you are volunteering in Pennsylvania for 30 days or less, you do not need these checks if you are in compliance with the clearance standards of the state you reside in and submit an out of state attestation. You can find the attestation form on the YPP webpage under the CA/PA Local State Requirements section.
If you are volunteering longer than 30 days: You will need to complete all the Pennsylvania requirements as described above.
2025-2026 Season – Local State YPP Requirements Compliance
If your Sterling Volunteers background screening is still current, but you have not completed the required state-specific clearances, your volunteer status may be impacted until all clearances are received and verified. If YPP requirements are not met for lead coaches, the team may not be event ready until it is cleared.We strongly encourage you to complete these requirements as soon as possible to avoid disruptions in your eligibility for the 2025–2026 season.
For all volunteers, the FIRST Youth Protection Program requirements remain a cornerstone of ensuring safe and positive experiences for participants.
By staying informed and meeting these requirements, you help us maintain the highest standards of safety and well-being for our participants. For more information about the Youth Protection Program or to clarify state-specific requirements, visit the FIRST YPP website or reach out to your local Program Delivery Partner.
Detailed instructions and resources for meeting these requirements are available on the YPP webpage under the Local YPP State Requirements for California and Pennsylvania section. If you have questions on whether this law applies to you, please contact your local Program Delivery Partner.
If you have any questions, please submit them to Contact Support and select Youth Protection Program from the dropdown menu.
Thank you for your dedication to creating a safe and inspiring environment for our youth participants!
I am incredibly happy to see California (and Pennsylvania) enforcing their own clearance and training requirements in lieu of recent action from FIRST and other organizations. Hope to see this become the norm for FIRST internationally sometime soon.
While I understand the good and importance behind this. I feel like this is overkill. I feel like this is going to make it harder to attract volunteers who want to try out for the first time, but then realize all the hoops they have to go make this happen and not go through with volunteering I think a general background check (w/ out finger prints will do just fine)
I do overall support a form of background checks and I’m glad FIRST is implementing a system of sorts for this.
darn?
Regardless of whether or not you think it’s a good idea, it doesn’t sound like FIRST has a choice in implementing this; it seems to be required by state law.
“All district events now scheduled for a 15.5 hour duration” /s
You will need to complete this process for each organization you volunteer with that requires it.
Reads like some (most?) event volunteer team mentors will to have to submit 20+ fingerprints to satisfy FIRST and their school/4H/scouts/etc.?
I live in Pennsylvania and mentor a high school based FRC team. We host three FIRST events at our high school–two FLL qualifiers and an FRC event. We require all volunteers to submit their Act 153 clearances to be in compliance with State Law and school district policy. To my knowledge–it has deterred ZERO volunteers.
Also-if following State mandated background checks and fingerprinting deters someone from volunteering are they really the kind of volunteer you want anyway?
It is required by State law and I know that our local FIRST PDP here in Pennsylvania (FMA) has been following it and asking for these prior to being a confirmed event volunteer. Sounds like FIRST is just streamlining it so it’s not up to each event’s Volunteer Coordinator to collect and track these for every volunteer.
The bigger issue I can see, how does this work for more last minute volunteers as well?
How does it work for events where a student becomes a last second volunteer? (I guess these rules are more for adults.)
But there have been times where I have last minute volunteered. Now I would have this completed in theory, but if I wanted to get someone last second to volunteer because were short staffed, how late is too late to get them their clearance?
Right, my argument isn’t against FIRST. It’s more the law behind it.
At a cursory glance, FIRST California will be offering fingerprinting at events. Provided prospective volunteers don’t have reservations about getting fingerprinted, this should be reasonably easy for any new volunteers when they attend the event in person or while visiting an event before or earlier in the season.
I don’t think adding fingerprinting to background checks necessarily improves their efficacy as a tool for preventing abuse and improving safety within the program, which seems to largely happen outside of events where there is currently very little oversight, but I think adding Mandated Reporter Training as a requirement and enforcing these changes at the state level does a lot more to improve safety, provided this is effectively enforced.
I know of teams whose mentors, aside from their registered Lead Mentors, aren’t registered with FIRST and have not completed the background check or training process, and although most of these cases feel innocuous, multiple high-profile cases of abuse that have been reported here include mentors who hopped from team to team without ever registering with the team in the FIRST dashboard. If these laws are enforced, it would conceivably prevent some of these cases from happening again to teams based in California and Pennsylvania. If these changes stop even just one more case of abuse in CA FIRST or PA FIRST, I would consider them a significantly positive change.
If a volunteer does not understand the importance of a background check and, by extension, their responsibility in protecting youth in the program, do we really want them volunteering?
FIRST has had a version of background checks required for volunteers for a while; this adds more depth and (hopefully) increases the incentive for and, by extension, the total percentage of mentors/volunteers who have clearance and Mandatory Reporter training and who know to report other mentors/volunteers who step out of line.
Ah I didn’t realize that they could do live finger printing at events. My issue was more relating to having to get finger printed AHEAD OF TIME. I had a relative who had to do so for a job but it took weeks to get an appointment. If they have it live at events then that solves my area of concern.
My issue isn’t doing a finger print style background check, its the physical motion of the extra steps required to undergo it by having to go to a facility to do the scan.
Can’t speak for California but here in Pennsylvania we use the Raptor System to screen spectators prior to admission to FIRST events. In theory if the last minute volunteer passes the Raptor scan the local PDP could make a judgment call and allow them to volunteer under the visitor provision of Act 153.
I suspect this will be similar to what we do for 4H. We have to pass some training and interviews up front, then renew some of it every X years. Since these are universal for California - ANY volunteering in California sounds like it legally requires it.
Since it appears that the requirements are far more stringent than FIRST’s “YPP”, perhaps FIRST could also relieve themselves of some cost and accept California and Pennsylvania’s checks in lieu of the YPP.
You screen spectators prior to admission?
Could you elaborate on that? The only thing that comes up when I search this is a handheld 3D scanning company and that doesn’t seem right unless everyone that attends gets a 3D printed model of themselves on exit.
Yep–swipe their licenses through the Raptor System. This isn’t my image-- I found via a Google search but I think it accurately explains it…
I kinda understand why they don’t allow this, but I do wish it could be a “one and done” situation when getting livescanned and background checked for multiple organizations. I need to do this for both my job and a variety of volunteering programs I participate in (including FIRST), and I have to do it separately for each of them.
Either way I’m still glad this is getting implemented - it’ll be a hassle for some but it’s absolutely a hassle worth having.
@vmorgs posted the image above explaining it, but this is the company in question: Visitor Management System for Schools
I just ran through the “Get Fingerprinted at a Live Event” option on the FIRST California website and found the process of finding an appointment straightforward (walk-ins available from 1-4pm at Sunset Showdown on July 26th). You just need your driver’s license and SSN on hand. I stopped when it asked for my payment information because I don’t know that I’ll be in the Bay that weekend yet, but everything before that was remarkably easy. I would feel comfortable just sending prospective new volunteers directly to the CA FIRST site and letting them figure it out from there.
Ultimately, I don’t expect this to be a significant point of friction when onboarding new volunteers.