Volunteer Employee Criminal History Services (VECHS) Program

Any public or private, for-profit, non-profit or volunteer organization that provides care or care placement services to any child, elderly person or person with disabilities can obtain access to a fingerprint-based criminal history check for their employees under the Volunteer Employee Criminal History Services (VECHS) program. Results of the criminal history check will be sent to the agency that requests the fingerprints, and can be used to determine whether the individual is fit to be in an environment with children as well as to make any required notifications regarding criminal history and subsequent arrest reports. Examples

If an organization wants to conduct a fingerprint-based background check under the VECHS program:

1. Create an account with CBI for use with the VECHS program (scroll down the page to locate). This only needs to be done once per agency.
2. Submit the individual's fingerprints along with the required fingerprint processing fee (a fee applies each time a different fingerprint card is submitted to CBI).
3. Results from the FBI/CBI will be returned to the organization (results and all future subsequent arrests will be sent to this agency until that agency notifies CBI to stop sending such results).

Does this mean that an individual working in education may be fingerprinted and pay a fee more than 1 time? Potentially. Each fingerprint card submitted to the CBI is pursuant to a statute that requires the fingerprint-based criminal history check and carries a fee in order for that card to be processed by the CBI and the FBI. Since fingerprint submissions are specific to a statute, fingerprint results are not transferable. Some examples:

• If you are fingerprinted for the VECHS program for an employer and you also want to apply for licensure, you will submit a separate set of fingerprints specifically for CDE .
• If you are fingerprinted for educator licensing and wish to be a realtor on the side, you must submit a new set of fingerprints for under the statutes for each profession.