Dear Arkansas Conference of The United Methodist Church,
Over the last three years, Safe Gatherings has offered us a valuable and necessary process to safely check and train those adults who serve kids, teens, and vulnerable adults. We are grateful to all of you who have taken the time to complete this certification as a way to love and protect these vulnerable communities. This process, while always essential, has gone through changes over these three years, and we are approaching another change that we believe will strengthen protections while also simplifying the steps.
Beginning January 1, 2026, the Safe Gathering certification will no longer require reference checks. To replace these checks, we will be adding a Federal level criminal search.
Why are we doing this?
- Eliminating references – when a reference check is conducted by a third party the information is considered a “consumer report” under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). As Safe Gatherings is a third party, essentially most reference responses are useless in the approval / denial process as most are based in opinion. Under the FCRA, the basis for denial needs to come from substantiated information contained on the consumer report. Learn more about the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
- Adding Federal level searches – in addition to crimes such as Embezzlement, Bank Robbery and Defrauding the Government, other crimes filed at the federal level include Enticing a Minor Over the Internet and Distribution of Child Pornography. These types of crimes would not be located when conducting a criminal record search at the District (county) court level.
When this change takes effect, all other steps in the process will stay the same. If you have any questions, please contact Alison Huskey (Alison.huskey@arumc.org) or Brittany Watson (brittany.watson@arumc.org).