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AmeriCorps Pre-Enrollment Requirement:
National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW) Check
Prior to their official start date, all potential AmeriCorps Members must be screened through the National Sex Offender Website (NSOPW) provided to the public by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Campus Administrators must perform this screening before the potential AmeriCorps Member’s official start date as noted in the Member Contract.
Please note that for AmeriCorps enrollment purposes, this screening cannot be performed by a fellow AmeriCorps Member such as an AmeriCorps VISTA, who may be serving at your campus.
The required NSOPW screening must be completed within a 29-day period before the potential Member’s requested start date for an AmeriCorps term, and mail a print-out of the results to the Foundation with the Member’s Bonner AmeriCorps Enrollment Workbook. A Member's NSOPW check must be completed at least one day before the Member's requested start date and at least one day before that date. The check may not be completed on the Member's requested start date or their enrollment date will have to be adjusted to the day after the check was completed.
For example, if in the Member Contract an individual requests a start date of July 1, 2011 for an AmeriCorps term of service, you must complete the NSOPW screening between June 1 and June 30, 2011. Then place the print out next to Page 23 in the Enrollment Workbook before mailing the Workbook to the Foundation.
Be sure that your printer is configured so that a printed page will automatically have a print date on it. Follow the simple steps below, and you can quickly and easily complete the screening!
Steps
Please note that you do not need to use the “Advanced Search” option. If you inadvertently used the Advanced Search option, you should re-run the search using the Standard Search option before you print out the results.
5. There are three possible search outcomes, each with a distinct next step:
#1 — If the result is “0 records from a national search with all Registries available...”, print the “Search Result” screen, sign your name next to the print date and mail the initialed page to the Foundation with the potential Member’s Enrollment Workbook.
#2 — If the Search Results page tells you that one or more of the state or other registries is “not available at this time”, print and sign the results . You must try 2 more times within 48 hours. Print and sign each attempt. Attach the final “all registries available” signed printout to the any previous print-out before mailing all signed print-outs to the Foundation. All of these attempts must be done before the Member's earliest possible start date can be established.
All final print-outs or a combination of same from the NSOPW search must indicate that all registries were accessed during the search. For example, if a search shows that the registry for Maine is unavailable and you search again and then only the New Mexico registry is unavailable, together those two searches show that all registries were checked, and therefore, the potential Member has passed the search.
#3 — If the Search Results page indicates a possible match with your potential Member, using the eligibility documentation supplied by the potential member (for example, a U.S. passport or U.S. Permanent Resident card) compare the individual’s government-issued ID to all of the NSOPW results including any photos that were accessible to view. If none of the results matches the ID of your potential Member, print out the first page only of the results, and on your campus letterhead create a signed and dated certification as follows:
MEMO TEMPLATE (TO BE SENT TO FOUNDATION WITH ENROLLMENT WORKBOOK)
(On Your Campus Letterhead)
“On DATE I reviewed all of the results of a search of the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, and none of the posted records on DATE were a match for potential AmeriCorps Member LAST NAME, FIRST NAME.”
(To be signed and dated by the Campus Administrator who ran the search)
Then, attach your signed and dated certification to the printed results page and include this page in your student's AmeriCorps Application Packet
6. Finally, after your Enrollment Manager based at the Foundation has notified you regarding what your student's earliest possible start date could be for AmeriCorps enrollment, mail the potential member's completed, signed and dated Enrollment Workbook AND Enrollment Check List to the Foundation immediately so that your new Member can be officially enrolled. Look for your new Member’s Bonner AmeriCorps status to be changed to “Active” in BWBRS as soon as their Enrollment Packet has been processed at the Foundation!
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