Title, Pa. C.S. Chapter 63 (relating to the Child Protective Services Law) requires the following people to obtain a Child Abuse Clearance in order to work and/or provide services to children:

For more detailed definitions and exceptions to clearance requirements please see the Who Needs Child Abuse Clearances at http://keepkidssafe.pa.gov/clearances/index.htm

• Volunteer Having Contact with Children: Applying for the purpose of volunteering as an adult for an unpaid position as a volunteer with a child-care service, a school or a program, activity or service, as a person responsible for the child's welfare or having direct volunteer contact with children.
• Foster Parent: Applying for purposes of providing foster care.
• Prospective Adoptive Parent: Applying for the purpose of adoption.
• Employee of Child Care Services: Applying for the purposes of child-care services in the following: Child day-care centers; group day-care homes; family child-care homes; boarding homes for children; juvenile detention center services or programs for delinquent or dependent children; mental health services for children; services for children with intellectual disabilities; early intervention services for children; drug and alcohol services for children; and day-care services or other programs that are offered by a school.
• School Employee Governed by Public School Code : Applying as a school employee who is required to obtain background checks pursuant to Section 111 of the Public School Code.
• School Employee Not Governed by Public School Code: Applying as a school employee not governed by Section 111 of the Public School Code.
• Self-employed provider of child-care services in a family child-care home - Applying for the purpose of providing child-care services in one's home (other than the child's own home) at any one time to four, five or six children who are not relatives of the caregiver.
• Individual 14 years of age or older who is applying for or holding a paid position as an employee with a program, activity or service, as a person responsible for the child’s welfare or having direct contact with children: Applying as an employee who is responsible for the child's welfare or having direct contact (providing care, supervision, guidance or control to children or having routine interaction with children) in any of the following in which children participate and which is sponsored by a school or a public or private organization:
  • A youth camp or program;
  • A recreational camp or program;
  • A sports or athletic program;
  • A community or social outreach program;
  • An enrichment or educational program; and
  • A troop, club or similar organization
• Individual seeking to provide child-care services under contract with a child-care facility or program: Applying for the purpose of being able to provide child-care services as part of a contract or grant funded program.
• Individual 18 years or older who resides in the home of a prospective adoptive parent for at least 30 days in a calendar year.
• Individual 18 years or older who resides in the home of a foster parent for at least 30 days in a calendar year.
• Individual 18 years or older who resides in the home of a certified or licensed child-care provider for at least 30 days in a calendar year.
• Individual 18 years or older, excluding individuals receiving services, who resides in one of the following homes for at least 30 days in a calendar year:
  • Family living home
  • Community home for individuals with an intellectual disability
  • Host home for children
• PA Department of Human Services Employment and Training Program Participant: Applying for the purpose of participating in a PA Department of Human Service Employment and Training Program through a county assistance office (CAO) or the Office of Income Maintenance (OIM).

By law, all child abuse history clearance applications must be processed no later than 14 days from the receipt of the application (CY 113 form).

Upon creating a Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Clearance and clicking "Submit" a submission confirmation will display on the screen indicating that your clearance application has been successfully submitted. You will also receive an email confirming successful transmission of your application to ChildLine. If you do not receive a confirmation email on the day that you submitted the clearance application, please contact the CWIS Support Center at 1-877-343-0494.

You may obtain a copy of your Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Clearance in two ways. First, when filling out your online application you can indicate that you would like to receive a paper copy of your application on the "Current Address" screen. Otherwise, to obtain a copy of your clearance certificate you may log in to your Child Welfare Account and go to the "PA Child Abuse History Clearance Account" screen. Here you may view submitted and / or processed applications. All processed applications are available to view and print five years or 60 months from the date of when the application was submitted to ChildLine.

If an application was mailed via the post office, please allow for mailing days through the post office. In other words, it may take 2 – 3 business days to reach our office from the time you mailed it to us. It may also take 2 – 3 business days from the date we mailed the results to the applicant.

If you used the online system to submit your application, you will still need to allow for the 14 days plus the 2-3 business days for the results to be mailed to you.

If you have allowed for the mailing days noted above AND it has been over 14 days since you mailed the application to our office and you have not received the results, please call 1-877-371-5422 to speak with a representative who will assist you.

Note: Even if an application is rejected and returned, we will still process the rejected application and mail the results to you no later than 14 days from the receipt of the application.

Non-volunteer applicants will be charged a fee of $13.00 for applying for a Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Clearance. Non-volunteer applicants submitting an application online must pay using either a credit/debit card or an authorization code. An authorization code is a code given to an employee of an organization who requires individuals to receive a PA Child Abuse History Clearance.

Yes, a parent(s) and/or guardian(s) must be listed on the application under the "Household Member" section. Paper applications that are missing this information will be rejected and returned to the applicant.

You must list as much of the information as can be remembered pertaining to any previous address where you have lived. If you can only remember part of the address: such as the city and state or street, city and state, then that is acceptable. Your application will not be rejected for listing previous addresses with partial information.

To verify that a Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Certificate is valid, first click "Verify a Certificate" located under the Clearance Application section on the Child Welfare Portal Homepage. Next, enter the requested information found on the clearance certificate and click "Search."

• If a match is found, the following message displays on the screen:
  • Match Found. "The applicant’s name and certificate identification number you provided matches a certificate produced by the ChildLine and Abuse Registry. This does not verify whether or not the applicant is listed as a perpetrator of child abuse in the Statewide database."
• If a match is found, but the certificate was issued more than 60 months prior, the following message displays on the screen:
  • Certification Expired: "The applicant’s name and certificate identification number you provided matches a certification produced by the ChildLine and Abuse Registry. However, this certification was issued more than 60 months ago and is no longer valid. Please request that the applicant apply again to obtain a current certification."
• If no match is found, the following message displays on the screen:
  • No Match Found: "The certificate information entered does not match any records in our Statewide database. This means that either the information on the hard copy has been modified or there is a discrepancy with the information. Please contact our office at 1-877-371-5422 if you need further assistance."

Note: The term "match found" in this circumstance does NOT mean that the individual is listed in the Statewide database as a perpetrator of child abuse. "A match found" means that the information on the certificate pertains to the name of the person on the document you have in your possession.

You must return the original clearance to our office via post office mail. On the actual clearance result, draw a single line through your name using a black ink pen. Then, directly above that line, clearly PRINT the correct spelling of your name.

Return the original clearance result to:
ChildLine and Abuse Registry
Department of Human Services
ATTN: Return Reprint
P.O. Box 8170, Harrisburg, PA 17105-8170.

A new clearance result will be mailed within one week of receiving the original clearance at the ChildLine and Abuse Registry Office.

Yes, if an organization provides you a code to enter in your application, they will have the ability to access your results online.

Note: An applicant requesting a PA Child Abuse History Clearance through the mail may have their results sent to a third party, if the applicant signs a consent form allowing the Department to release their results. Click on the link below for a copy of the "consent to release information form." The consent form must be attached to the paper PA Child Abuse History Clearance application when it is mailed to the ChildLine and Abuse Registry.
A paper copy of the consent release may be found here: http://www.keepkidssafe.pa.gov/resources/clearances/index.htm

Yes, an instructional PowerPoint entitled "CWIS Business Partner" can be found at http://keepkidssafe.pa.gov/ under the Supporting Documents tab.

Yes. The Child Protective Services law does not provide exemptions for out of state residents or agencies.

To obtain an emergency clearance for an emergency placement, you will need to contact ChildLine at 1-800-932-0313.

No, DHS no longer interprets the Pennsylvania State Police Criminal History Record for volunteer applicants. The Pennsylvania State Police Criminal History results should be given directly to the entity requesting the background checks, once it’s obtained from the Pennsylvania State Police.

No, DHS no longer interprets the FBI Criminal History Record for volunteer applicants who live outside the state of Pennsylvania. The FBI Criminal History Record may be given directly to the entity requesting the background checks, once it’s obtained from the Department of Human Services.

The purpose type category for which an individual obtains a Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Certification will be denoted on the certificate beginning November 21, 2015. There are 5 purpose type categories which include: Volunteer, Employee, Foster Care, Adoption, and Adult Household Member. Prior to that date, organizations may confirm with the applicant the purpose category for which the certificate was obtained.

No. The eligibility criteria for volunteers applying for a Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Certification states that all volunteers are eligible to receive a certification free of charge once every 57 months. This applies to all volunteers, regardless of the organization with whom the applicant is associated. If your organization requires you to renew your certification more frequently, you must pay for the certification using a debit/credit card or using an authorization code provided by your organization.

If an electronic application is rejected you will be asked to provide additional information and re-submit your application. Rejected electronic applications are given a "Pending" status and put on hold until the applicant submits the additional information requested. You will not need to create a new application; all information previously entered will be populated and can be updated or edited prior to submission. No new payment information is required to re-submit a rejected application.

Rejected paper applications are returned to the applicant and not to a third party when there is missing information needed to process the application or when the application is not signed by the applicant. In order for a child abuse history clearance result to be issued the rejected application must be returned to the following address:

ChildLine and Abuse Registry
Department of Human Services
ATTN: Return Reject
P.O. Box 8170
Harrisburg, PA 17105-8170

Please Note: When the applicant receives the rejected application back in the mail there will be a cover page that highlights the information that is needed before the application can be mailed back to the Department of Human Service’s ChildLine and Abuse Registry.

Employees:

Beginning July 1, 2015, certifications must be obtained every 60 months.

Any employee with current certification issued prior to July 1, 2015, that is older than 60 months must renew their certificate by December 31, 2015. If an individual or agency elects to renew all required employment certifications at the same time, the date of the oldest certification, rather than the most recent, is the date to be used for the renewal date.

Foster Parents and Prospective Adoptive Parents:

Beginning July 1, 2015, clearances must be obtained by foster and pre-adoptive parents and their adult household members who reside in the home for at least 30 calendar days in a year every 60 months.

NOTE: Adoptive parents who are not planning to adopt in the future do not need to renew their clearances every 60 months.

Volunteers:

Clearances must be renewed every 60 months.

If you were approved as a volunteer before August 25, 2015, and do not have clearances (because you previously were not required to obtain clearances) you have until July 1, 2016, to get your clearances.

If you were approved as a volunteer before August 25, 2015 and you have certifications because your organization required one or all of them and your certifications are older than 60 months, you also have until July 1, 2016, to obtain your certifications.

If you were approved as a volunteer before August 25, 2015 and you have certifications because your organization required one or all of them and your certifications are less 60 months, you also have until 60 months from the date of your oldest certification, to renew your certifications and to obtain any certifications now required that you may not been previously required to obtain (i.e. if your organization required the Child Abuse certification, but not the PSP certification, when your Child Abuse certification expires based on the 60 month cycle, you would naturally add in any of the other required certifications).

Note: Organizations sometimes create their own policies in regards to how frequently child abuse history clearances are required within their organizations. Their policies cannot require applicants to obtain clearances less than what the law requires; however, their policies can require applicants to obtain clearances more frequently than the law requires. So please check with the organization that is requiring a clearance to understand their specific policies

You may file an appeal by writing to:

Secretary of Human Services
Attention: Child Abuse Appeals Unit
P.O. Box 2675
Harrisburg, PA 17105-2675

Learn More about submitting a Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Clearance application through the Child Welfare Portal: https://www.compass.state.pa.us/cwis/public/home