Summary: The National Child Protection Act of 1993 encourages states to enact legislation authorizing fingerprint-based national searches of criminal history records of persons seeking either paid or volunteer jobs with organizations serving children, the elderly, or the disabled. This report addresses the following questions: (1) To what extent have the states GAO reviewed--California, Florida, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia--enacted statutes authorizing national background checks of child care providers? Also, what fees are charged for background checks of volunteers, and how do these fees compare with the actual costs in these states? (2) What effect have these states' laws and related fees had on volunteerism? (3) Have state agencies and other organizations found national background checks a useful screening tool? More specifically, for certain jobs, how often have fingerprint-based background checks identified persons with criminal histories? (4) What is the status of the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System being developed by the FBI, and what are the selected states' plans for using the system when it becomes available?
