SCHOOL VOLUNTEERS

Volunteers serving in Williamson County Schools will have new guidelines to follow in the future.  Superintendent Mike Looney provided the Board of Education with the new School Volunteer Approval Procedure at the Board’s March 11 work session and described the procedure to the public at the March 15 Board Meeting where the Board approved the GUIDELINES.  The new guidelines define types of volunteers and tiered approval processes for each type.

“Volunteers provide an invaluable service to our students and schools,” said Superintendent Dr. Mike Looney.  “But we need procedures in place that help us ensure student safety as well.  Volunteers I’ve spoken with are supportive of the new guidelines.”

There are various levels of volunteers and requirements that must be met including:

• Someone who volunteers occasionally and in a highly public setting with little or no contact with students and who are under constant supervision by Williamson County Schools personnel will not be required to complete a volunteer application or a criminal background check.  A volunteer fitting this example might be someone working at a school field day or fundraising event or someone working in the concession stand or making an occasional classroom visit.
   

• Regular volunteers with student contact under constant supervision of Williamson County personnel must complete a volunteer application and a confidentiality agreement acknowledging FERPA (student confidentiality) requirements.  A volunteer fitting this example might include a room parent, class readers, front door reception, front office volunteers and single day field trip chaperones.
   

• Volunteers who have unsupervised contact with students on or off campus will be required to complete a volunteer application and confidentiality agreement and have a criminal background fingerprint check through the Williamson County Schools Human Resources Department or present the school a copy of a background check report conducted by another provider.  The fee for the background check will be paid by the volunteer or the PTO or booster club.  A volunteer fitting this example would be someone providing one-on-one tutoring, a volunteer coach, an overnight field trip chaperone or a single day field trip chaperone where there is no direct supervision by a Williamson County School employee.