District Site

Volunteer Information

Perkiomen Valley School District is thankful for the support of its many volunteers. Please consult the Volunteer Handbook as well as the information and FAQ’s below to learn more. 

All individuals volunteering/chaperoning as program volunteers in any capacity within the Perkiomen Valley School District are required to complete the following clearances and forms:

Once you have completed the necessary documents, you should submit all paperwork to the Volunteer Coordinator in your child’s building. (The Volunteer Coordinator list is located below.) If you have a child in more than one building, you do not need to repeat this process for every school. Submit your clearances to one building and your information will be included in a district-wide database that all schools can access. YOU SHOULD RETAIN ORIGINALS FOR YOUR FILES. Do not bring clearance forms to the District Office. 

All three clearance reports must be renewed every five years. If you are not sure how old your clearances are, please email Karen Zucker at kzucker@pvsd.org for information.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR RETURNING VOLUNTEERS/CHAPERONES

If your current clearances are more than five years old, you will need to submit a new set of Pennsylvania clearances and the fingerprint report/Act 153 Volunteer Affidavit to your child’s building. Please keep in mind that you will need to re-submit all of your clearances before each five-year period has expired. Examples: If you obtained your clearances in June 2015, you will have to re-submit your clearances again prior June 2020 in order to remain in compliance. 

VOLUNTEER COORDINATORS

Evergreen: Karen Tarquinio

Schwenksville: Wendy Ledford

Skippack: Peggy Jacobson

South: Kim Jones

PVMS East: Allison Roberto 

PVMS West: Colleen Sitron

High School: Karen Zucker at the District Office

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Yes, provided the clearances are all under one year old. Please submit the originals for copying.

Program Volunteers: A program volunteer is a volunteer who provides recurring assistance in support of a curricular or extra-curricular activity under the general direction and supervision of a staff member employed by the district. A program volunteer may, from time to time, have, or may be reasonably expected to have unsupervised contact with students. Examples of program volunteers include, but are not limited to: field trip chaperones, college student observers, volunteer athletic coaches, booster club members, volunteer tutors, play/musical helpers, and library helpers.

Employees: Anyone employed by the district must have the three required clearances. This includes teachers, support staff members (includes secretarial, paraprofessional, custodial, food service workers), administrators, students, and individuals who help run our athletic events, co-curricular activities, and our Community Education programs.

Guest Volunteers: A guest volunteer is a volunteer who comes to school infrequently and works in the presence of a teacher/administrator with students. A guest volunteer shall not have unsupervised contact with students and is not required to obtain any of the mandated clearances necessary for employees and program volunteers. Examples of guest volunteers are Career Day presenters or other guest speakers, “mystery readers” in elementary classrooms, or other visitors who are escorted by an authorized staff member.

At-Home Volunteer: A volunteer who provides a service to one of our schools but does not need to physically be in a school to do so does not have to obtain clearances.

If you have kept the originals, refer to the date on the clearance forms to see when you obtained them. If you cannot locate your originals, it is best to have the clearances done again.

No. If you are visiting a school for a specific purpose, such as a parent-teacher conference, or you are coming in to provide a one-time service (reading to a class, making a presentation to a class), you do not need to have your clearances on file.

Currently, the child abuse history clearance and criminal history clearances are free for volunteer applicants, and the FBI Federal Criminal History Record costs $22.60.

Yes, effective July 1, 2015, all volunteers must have the FBI Criminal History Record report on file with the district. Once you obtain this report, please contact the Volunteer Coordinator at your building and ask him/her to add it to your file. PLEASE NOTE: If you have lived in Pennsylvania for 10 years or more, you do have another option available. You may complete a Volunteer Affirmation Form, in which you swear to your PA residency for the last 10 years and that you have not been convicted of the offenses listed on the form.

The FBI Criminal History Record report is a fingerprint-based record check. Go to the following website to register and make an appointment for fingerprinting: https://uenroll.identogo.com

  • If you are getting a report for employment purposes, your Service Code is 1KG6XN
  • If you are getting a report for volunteer purposes, your Service Code is 1KG6Y3    (If there is a chance that you may be hired by PVSD in any capacity within the next five years, please choose the employee code, as a volunteer fingerprint report will not serve for employment purposes and you will need to be reprinted upon hire.)

Once complete, you will receive a notification via email.  Print and submit your results to your volunteer coordinator. 

Click here to download a copy. Please note that this form is only acceptable for volunteers who have lived in Pennsylvania for 10 years or more.

You WILL NOT need to have your license scanned to volunteer. We initiated this requirement as a way to double-check the backgrounds of volunteers whose clearances may have been obtained more than a year ago. The recent changes to the state law ensure that we will have recent clearances on file for all volunteers, and the additional step of requiring a license scan on top of three clearances could prove to be prohibitive to those who want to volunteer. License scanning will continue at the high school as a way to track visitors in and out of the building. Funding does not exist at this time to expand that procedure to other school buildings.

In December 2014, the state made amendments to Act 153 (Child Protective Services Law). The law was amended to require all school employees, contractors AND volunteers having direct contact with children to obtain new clearances every 36 months. In July 2015, the state passed Act 15, which then changed the time period for valid clearances from three to five years, so as to make the requirements less onerous for employees and volunteers.

Please contact Karen Zucker for more information at (610) 489-8506, ext. 1131, or kzucker@pvsd.org.