Does the background check include a credit check?
The governing law on background checks conducted by third parties is the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The law began in order to regulate consumer credit reports, e.g. reports used by department stores to decide who they would allow to open charge accounts. The FCRA has been expanded multiple times to include employment and to relate to criminal records and other investigations. Although the FCRA does not specifically cover volunteers, the parishes and organizations of the Archdiocese treat volunteers as if they had the same rights as applicants and employees. If the volunteer position involves the handling of money, the volunteer will be asked to authorize a credit check as an addition to the normal background check. If the volunteer position does not involve handling money, the volunteer should not be asked to authorize a credit check. If asked, the volunteer has the right to refuse authorization of the credit check. The authorization forms clearly identify credit checks as an ad
