With the end of school in sight, parents are wondering how they are going to occupy their children for those two and a half months.
The answer for many: summer camp. But, according to New York Senator Charles Schumer, current federal laws are not allowing summer camps and other child care facilities to access FBI sex offender and background checks for new employees and volunteers.
Schumer is pushing for an important law that will open up this database to summer camps, day cares and other organizations. Child-serving organizations currently only have access to New York State's criminal database, so a potential employee with a criminal record out-of-state would go undetected.
Employers can pay private firms to conduct background checks, but that can cost $3000 or more per search.
Schumer's bipartisan proposal, the Child Protection Improvements and Electronic Life and Safety Security Systems Act of 2015, will highlight the fact that these groups want the ability to conduct sex offender background checks on prospective employees to help keep children safe.
