The safety of our campers, counselors, and participants is of utmost priority to Camp Copass. While a background check for all counselors and sponsors is only one layer of protection, it is a vital one for us, a non-negotiable requirement. We hope your church or organization would also require background checks for all who serve with children ages 18 and under.
You are required to run background checks and submit results for EVERY person 18 years and older at camp with your group.
- NATIONAL criminal background check
- NATIONAL sex offender background check
Both background checks have to be run EVERY YEAR for every person for every name used.
Camp Copass will not accept the results from previous summers for the current summer season. Results will be accepted if they were run in the fall for the current school year.
There are many background search providers available via the internet. You do not have to use a particular service; however, you must be able to SHOW that the results are from national searches. Do not use a source that only checks Texas databases or limit a search to only the states where you think the person has lived.
Options to run a background check:
(1) Use your own search provider and mail us the hard copy results/reports or
(2) Use our recommended background check service. You may simply send your adult leaders to the following link to complete the background check and pay the $10 fee themselves. Please have them use the password: Genesis2021 to log in.
Both the Criminal History system AND the Public Sex Offender registry provided by TxDPS search only information from Texas agencies. Therefore, the TxDPS service is NOT a national search and does NOT meet our requirements.
A person is automatically disqualified to serve at camp and to be on campus if they have been convicted of any type of sex-related crime or if they have a violent felony conviction.
Print the page with the no-results-found or no-matching-records statement and the person’s name that you were searching for. It means no records were found based on their name and/or your other search criteria. We need the hard-copy proof that the check was run for that person.
You have to turn in a hard copy of the results for both checks. They must include documentation from the search provider confirming the searches were national and not limited by location.
The required documents for persons 18 and older must be turned in two weeks prior to their assuming responsibilities at camp. For retreats lasting 3 or more nights, the paperwork should be turned in to Camp Copass one week prior to the retreat. For summer camps, the paperwork should be turned in to Camp Copass two weeks prior to camp.