Dear Parents,

Welcome to the St. Andrew Apostle School community. I look forward to working with you and your child(ren) during the coming school year. I am writing to you to inform you of the Archdiocese of Washington’s policy for child protection and St. Andrew Apostle School’s strict adherence to this policy.

According to Archdiocesan policy, all school volunteers must complete an electronic background check at the school office before beginning volunteer service in an Archdiocesan school. If you plan on volunteering for any school activity, please follow the steps below and fill out all of the  application forms necessary to qualify as a volunteer. Please note that these forms must be signed by the school principal or pastor before beginning the application process.

Child Protection education is also a very important part of compliance with the Child Protection Policy for the Archdiocese of Washington. In addition to the background check requirements, all volunteers must attend the Archdiocesan sponsored adult training “Protecting God’s Children for Adults.” You may register for training via the Archdiocesan website or go to www.virtus.org. You must pre-register for the training, and be aware that there is an enrollment limit for each training session.

I hope you will consider being a school volunteer. Please call the school office if you have questions about the application process. Thank you in advance for complying with this Archdiocesan mandate that is put in place for the safety of all of our children.

Sincerely,
Susan Sheehan
Principal

Child Protection Requirements

For all volunteers

• Review the Volunteer Compliance Checklist.
• Create an account on Virtus Online.
• Attend a in-person or on-line training course. You may complete the other requirements before attending the training.
• Fill out an Volunteer Application and bring it to the office for a signature.
• Call the school office at 301 649-3555 and make an appointment to complete the electronic background check (done at St. Andrew’s). Bring two forms of government issued ID (one ID must include a picture of you). The electronic background check only takes a few minutes to complete.
• If you have never been fingerprinted for Archdiocese of Washington Child Protection purposes, you must be fingerprinted. Fingerprinting results through other organizations are not available to ADW.