Background Clearance Portal

Why is this necessary?

Because you may be interpreting for children and youth in ACS's care, ACS is legally required to screen everyone in direct contact with their clients to ensure the child's safety. The forms below are comprehensive because they feed multiple state and federal screening systems, not just a single background check. This clearance is something new that ACS is requiring.

Two clearances are available

After entering your email address, you'll be sent a link that takes you directly to ASLI's web form. Everyone starts with SCR. You'll be asked about fingerprinting afterward and can decline.

• SCR clearance — The Statewide Central Register (of Child Abuse and Maltreatment) is the database maintained by the NY State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) that tracks indicated reports. There is no fingerprinting and no social security number required. You will be asked about the people that live in your household, including name, relationship, gender, and birthdate. And you'll be asked about your address history.

  This clearance is good for many on-site work assignments and all VRI assignments.

• Fingerprint clearance — required if you want to expand the work you are eligible for to include ACS facilities that house youth. Once the form is approved, you'll be contacted by the ACS with more information about the fingerprint process.

  New York law requires anyone in direct contact with children in state-regulated facilities to pass a criminal background check. A name-based check (like the SCR above) can miss records tied to aliases or misspellings. Fingerprints are the only way to positively match a person against state and federal criminal databases.

  This process is at no charge to you and you will be paid for your time in getting the fingerprinting done.

Who reviews your answers

• Sarah Hafer of ASLI first, to confirm the form is complete and readable
• NYC ACS Office of Human Resources, Compliance Division
• NY State Central Register, for the SCR check
• If fingerprinted: NY State DCJS, the FBI, and the NYS Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs

Your privacy

If you complete the fingerprint forms, your SSN is written onto the Justice Center consent form and immediately discarded. It is never saved to our database. All forms are emailed to interpreters@asli.com for internal review before being forwarded to ACS and then deleted.