Contact Us
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Phone: (724) 330-5350
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Email GRACE UMC
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Mailing Address:
Grace UMC Coal Center
420 California Drive
Coal Center, PA
15423
Phone: (724) 330-5350
Email GRACE UMC
Mailing Address:
Grace UMC Coal Center
420 California Drive
Coal Center, PA
15423
Creating a safe, loving environment is one of the foundations of what we do as God's people. Developing an atmosphere that protects our children is critical. We, as Christians, must be diligent about this task. The Western Pennsylvania Conference highly recommends that every church adopt and implement a Safe Sanctuary Policy and creates a Safe Sanctuary environment within the church facility and throughout its ministry.
In 2014, some 23 pieces of legislation were signed into law in Pennsylvania to further protect children and youth from abuse. The new laws expand the categories of people considered “mandated reporters” of child abuse and provide for direct reporting to PA Childline. Others change requirements for background checks for both paid employees and volunteers working with children.
On July 1, 2015, Gov. Tom Wolf signed HB1276, which clarified who needs to get clearances and pushed back the date for volunteers to get the clearances. Those changes are reflected on this page.
It is important that church leaders update their policies, training and procedures to reflect the changes in state law. The following provisions affect churches:
All paid church staff members (beginning at age 14) are required to get three clearances:
ALL volunteers age 18 and over who deal with children and youth are required to have clearances.
For complete up-to-date information on the laws, how to get clearances and other related information visit Pennsylvania's new Keep Kids Safe website at keepkidssafe.pa.gov
The only valid clearances are the PA State Police check, the PA Childline check (PA Child Abuse History) and the FBI clearance check. Christian Background Checks, Trak-1, and others do not meet the standards of the new law.
The Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Clearance can be submitted and paid for online through the Child Welfare Information Solution (CWIS) self-service portal, compass.state.pa.us/cwis. Submitting an application online allows individual applicants to receive their results through an automated system that will notify the applicant once their results have been processed. Applicants will be able to view and print their results online. The self-service portal also provides the ability for organizations to create business accounts to prepay for child abuse clearances and have online access to the results.
For more information about the electronic submission of child abuse clearances or for information on obtaining the Pennsylvania State Police Criminal Record Check or Federal Bureau of Investigation Criminal Background Check, go to dhs.pa.gov/publications/findaform/childabusehistoryclearanceforms/index.htm
Follow these three links to be in compliance:
The PA Department of Human Services’ Keep Kids Safe PA website has complete details, including a Q&A about mandated reporting of suspected child abuse.
To help train mandatory reporters, this flyer describes and provides a link to a FREE online three-hour course for mandatory reporters. Developed by University of Pittsburgh, the Department of Public Welfare, Office of Children, Youth and Families, the Pennsylvania Children and Youth Administrators, the course covers how to recognize and report suspected child abuse. Registration is required. Participants can then print out a certificate signifying their completion of the course.