While VISTA conducts a centralized background check on applicants, it is often the responsibility of AmeriCorps state and national programs to perform their own searches. For general information, please visit the Conducting Background Checks page.

Here are some pointers for AmeriCorps programs running checks:

• An individual found to be on the National Sex Offender Public Registry (NSOPR), or has been convicted of murder, is ineligible to serve.
• If an individual is found on a state criminal registry, and not the NSOPR, that individual's eligibility is left for the program to decide, but the grantee program must document consideration of the background check results prior to selection.
• Programs may adopt other disqualifying offenses (e.g., felony convictions, DUI convictions, etc).
• Individuals for whom the state criminal registry results are pending may be enrolled, but may not have unsupervised access to vulnerable populations until the results are complete.
• An individual who refuses to consent to a criminal registry check is ineligible to serve.
• You must obtain permission to conduct a background check from the applicant. Adapt the form below to obtain consent from applicants to conduct a background check. An individual who refuses to consent to a criminal registry check is ineligible to serve.

This resource was contributed by Illinois Public Health AmeriCorps (Springfield, IL), an AmeriCorps*State program that supports health and community preparedness programs and conducts community outreach across the state.