VECHS screening for volunteers and employees.

VECHS — the Volunteer and Employee Criminal History System — is the FDLE programme that lets organisations screen volunteers and employees who work with children, the elderly, or people with disabilities, even where no specific statute licenses their activity. Youth sports leagues, faith organisations, mentoring programmes, scouting groups, and nonprofits are the typical users.

It works differently from agency screening in one important respect: the organisation has to be set up first. A qualified entity signs an agreement with FDLE, receives its own ORI, and only then can send people to be screened under it. Volunteers who arrive without their organisation having done that groundwork cannot be screened under VECHS — so the first call is usually from the organisation rather than the individual.

This distinction saves organisations a lot of confusion. Agency screening through AHCA, DCF, APD, or the Department of Health deposits results in the shared Care Provider Background Screening Clearinghouse, where participating providers can retrieve them. VECHS is a separate FDLE programme with its own agreement, its own ORI, and its own results delivery — VECHS results go to the qualified entity that requested them, and they don't sit in the Clearinghouse for others to pull.

The practical consequence is that a volunteer screened through one organisation generally needs screening again for another, even for identical work. It also means the organisation, not the volunteer, holds the results and the responsibility for handling them. If you're setting up a programme, it's worth reading FDLE's guidance on qualified entity obligations before you start sending people in.