ACTION: Overview of CPIA proposed rule – public comments sought 

September 18, 2023

By: MENTOR

Advocacy

The FBI is seeking public comments on its proposed rule (regulatory policy) to implement the Child Protection Improvements Act (CPIA). This is the first step necessary to launching the CPIA program for mentoring and other youth-serving organizations to benefit from.  

MENTOR is concerned that elements of the proposed rule run counter to the underlying law’s intent and the ultimate success of the CPIA program. As such, MENTOR Affiliates and youth-serving nonprofit organizations are highly encouraged to submit comments to address these concerns, and are welcome to utilize the framing shared below. You can submit your comments here.  

Take action: MENTOR encourages you to submit comments before the deadline on Monday, September 25.

A strong response from the mentoring movement is critical: since many mentor-mentee relationships are one-on-one and/or unobserved by other trained staff, screening practices are especially important to our work and is increasingly under scrutiny. 

Below are three recommendations MENTOR will be submitting before the public comment period closes. Affiliates and programs can influence the law’s implementation by writing and submitting comments about the importance of background screening and the routine barriers and challenges mentoring organizations face in your state or region before sharing the recommendations below. You can keep your comments relatively brief.  

Quick background: the CPIA was passed by Congress and signed into law in March 2018. It establishes a program at the FBI that would ensure entities working with vulnerable populations (children, the elderly, and individuals with disabilities) can access fingerprint-based background checks if they wish to use them as part of their screening practices for staff and volunteers. Access to these checks is currently not universally available to all youth-serving organizations, and backlogs and price points can make them prohibitive to use even when they are available. The CPIA program was intended to expand and ease access, ensure a rapid response time, and make fingerprint checks affordable to nonprofit organizations. 

A few notes for context: 

  • “Designated entity” in this rule refers to the entity the FBI will hire to manage the CPIA program.  
  • The FBI is seeking feedback during this comment period on the process by which organizations will request fingerprint background checks and receive information in response. MENTOR would like to see the process modeled after the Child Safety Pilot (known to some as the SafetyNet Pilot) that was managed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The pilot inspired the creation of the CPIA in Congress.   
  • The CPIA program would support nonprofits serving youth, the elderly, and individuals with disabilities. The law includes reference to criminal offenses (listed as “criterion offenses” below) that are relevant to youth-serving programs, but does not address those relevant to senior citizens or individuals with disabilities.
    • Note: MENTOR, YMCA of the USA, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, American Camp Association, and about a dozen other national nonprofit organizations helped shape the CPIA law, including the criterion offenses listed in the underlying law. If you read the solicitation for comment, you’ll see reference to the PROTECT Act and the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act (CCDBGA). These laws sufficiently identify criminal offenses that are relevant to youth-serving organizations. No single criminal record or arrest would disqualify any potential staff or volunteer. Background screening practices are one part of the comprehensive process employers and youth-serving organizations use to make determinations of fitness for employment and volunteer activities. 

MENTOR’s recommendations:  

We offer three specific recommendations to the proposed rule, which you may also propose in your response: 

  1. The FBI should prevent additional fees from being collected by the designated entity(ies). The intent of the underlying law was that only the real cost associated with the FBI’s processing of fingerprints would be passed along to nonprofit entities serving vulnerable populations (at a rate of $13.25 for employees and $11.25 for volunteers). The designated entity(ies) should not profit from the background screening practices of these nonprofit organizations.  
  1. The FBI should extend the comment window to ensure sufficient comment from stakeholders representing the elderly and individuals with disabilities. The underlying law sufficiently accounts for the criterion offenses relevant to youth-serving organizations (PROTECT Act and CCDBGA), but may not support the needs and relevant criminal offenses for the other stakeholders serving vulnerable populations.  
  1. The FBI’s RFP that will help identify the designated entity should be modeled after the process utilized during the Child Safety Pilot that inspired the CPIA. The pilot managed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children streamlined the process, reduced the burden on the nonprofit organizations participating in the pilot, and swiftly and effectively interpreted results on the criminal history reviews it conducted.  

If you have any questions about this ask or would like feedback on your draft comments, please reach out to Abbie Evans at aevans@mentoring.org.  

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  • MENTOR National and Affiliates will use the information you provide to better inform future publications and keep you up to date with advancements in the mentoring field. For more information, check out our privacy policy.