Identification card, waiver among amendments to NJ background screening law

The Vineland, New Jersey, city council is scheduled to vote next week on amendments to its year-old background screening policy, according to the Daily Journal. Currently, any person who works in direct contact with children under the age of 18 in the city's recreation programs is subject to a background screening. If a check doesn't come up clean, the employee is flagged and banned from coaching unless his or her record is expunged. The council recently suggested some changes following comments from league officials. Members will vote on whether coaches should wear cards that show identity verification, as well as the inclusion of a waiver on league applications that parents must sign if a volunteer was flagged during a background screening. "I've been living in this community all my life and I've made some bad choices," Ricky Bluitt, a longtime football coach who was flagged and barred last year, told the news source. "For the last 23 years, I've made a lot of good choices." A three-person committee will vote on the matter, with a unanimous decision necessary to pass the movement. The earliest the new rules could take effect is August 15 - nearly three weeks after football practices begin.