The Department of Justice is proud to present Guidelines for the Screening of Persons Working With Children, the Elderly, and Individuals With Disabilities in Need of Support. We want to recognize and thank those who made these guidelines possible.

These guidelines are based on work of the American Bar Association (ABA) Center on Children and the Law under the project Effective Screening of Child Care and Youth Service Workers, for which Westat, Inc., and the Center for Child Protection and Family Support provided considerable expertise and assistance. A subsequent project also managed by the ABA developed recommendations for guidelines for screening to prevent abuse. The projects reflected collaborative efforts by an interdisciplinary staff with informed and active advisory boards.

The advisory boards, which provided sound advice and at times spirited comments and discussion, comprised a broad mix of service providers, experts, and advocates concerned with screening workers to prevent the abuse of children, the elderly, and individuals with disabilities. Many, many thanks to those who participated on one or both project boards: Nancy Coleman and Lori Stiegel, ABA Commission on the Legal Problems of the Elderly; James Gardner, Accreditation Council on Services to People with Disabilities; Elinor Ginzler, Elder Abuse Project Coordinator, Prince Georges County Department of Family Services; Greg Giuliano, National Association of Adult Protective Services; Gwendolyn Gregory, National School Boards Association; Gerald Hotaling, Family Research Lab; Michael Kennedy, Syracuse University Center on Human Policy; Kathryn McCarty and John Parry, ABA Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law; Thomas McKenna, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America; Tibby Milne, National McGruff House Network; Mindy Morrell, Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council; Lawrence Potts, Boy Scouts of America; Gordon Raley, National Collaboration for Youth; Andrea Sedlak, Westat, Inc.; Toshio Tatara, American Public Welfare Association; Joyce Thomas, Center for Child Protection and Family Support; Rud Turnball, University of Kansas Beach Center; Clarice Walker, former commissioner of Social Services, Department of Human Services of the District of Columbia; Robert Wettstein, Western Psychiatric Institute; Barbara Willer, National Association for the Education of Young Children; and Rosalie Wolf, National Committee to Prevent Elder Abuse -- Institute on Aging.

A number of Federal employees participated in meetings or discussions during one or both projects: Michael Medaris, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), and Carol Kaplan and Dave Murphy, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ); Kevin Avery, Office of Legislative Affairs, Kimberly Lesnak, Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys; James Gray and Beth Haley, Access Integrity Unit, Criminal Justice Information Services Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation; Marsha B. Liss and Judith D. Schretter, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, DOJ; and James X. Dempsey, former staff to the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights of the House Committee on the Judiciary.

The original project was directed by Susan J. Wells, Ph.D., with assistance from Noy S. Davis, Esq. Kimberly Dennis, M.P.A., formerly with the ABA Center on Children and the Law, had the monumental task of surveying approximately 3,800 child-serving organizations and drafting large portions of the final report to the project. Marsha Liss, Esq., formerly a consultant with the ABA Center on Children and the Law, was instrumental in the development of the screening model. Robert Chipman and Claire Sandt provided invaluable assistance on the Department of Defense and Registry surveys (respectively). Cheryl Hinton and Jennifer Gilligan Twombly assisted with production.

The subsequent project was led by Noy S. Davis, Esq., with considerable advice and assistance from Kathi Grasso, Esq. Many thanks to Susan J. Wells, Ph.D., formerly with the ABA Center on Children and the Law and now with the Children and Families Research Center, University of Illinois School of Social Work, and Howard Davidson, Director of the ABA Center on Children and the Law, who provided thoughtful and much appreciated comments. Interns Claudia Schoeffel and Tina Shanahan provided invaluable assistance.

Finally, the project monitor, Jeffrey Slowikowski, OJJDP, provided expertise and assistance in all phases of this endeavor.

OJJDP Summary: Guidelines for the Screening of Persons Working with Children, the Elderly, and Individuals with Disabilities in Need of Support, April 1998