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Child Protection Program

To All Volunteers:

The safety and well-being of all participants in the Little League® program is paramount. As adults, we want to ensure that the young people playing in the Little League program are able to grow up happy, healthy and, above all, safe. Whether they are our children, or the children of others, each of us has a responsibility to protect them.

All local Little Leagues are required to conduct background checks on managers, coaches, the board of directors’ members and any other persons, volunteers or hired workers, who provide regular services to the league and/or have repetitive access to, or contact with, players or teams.

In order to conduct these checks, Little League International has contracted with JDP to provide local leagues with a special Internet site that allows members to search a criminal records database of more than 450 million criminal records – instantly.

Additionally, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, any entity or organization primarily engaged in providing activities or programs to children 18 years of age or less shall obtain “all available criminal offender record information” from the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services (DCJIS) prior to accepting any person as an employee, volunteer, vendor or contractor.

To begin the process: Please complete the online Volunteer Coaching registration for baseball or softball HERE. Print, complete and scan the CORI Form and send it to our Safety Officer ( SafetyOfficer@sybsa.org) to begin the process of your background check. The SYBSA CORI Policy can be found HERE.

Until both SORI and CORI checks are complete, results have been reviewed and the individual is cleared by the Safety Officer, no volunteer will commence activities for SYBSA.

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Guidelines on Reporting Abuse

The “Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Act of 2017” mandates that all amateur sports organizations, which participate in an interstate or international amateur athletic competition and whose membership includes any adult who is in regular contact with an amateur athlete who is a minor must report suspected child abuse, including sexual abuse, within 24 hours to law enforcement.

Additional resource information is available from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) (www.childwelfare.gov), as well as links below. Note, however, that countries and states/provinces frequently amend their laws.

Reporting laws reflect parents’ and volunteers’ paramount obligation to protect children from maltreatment. We encourage volunteers to take immediate action if they believe the health or welfare of a child is at stake. If there are questions concerning reporting, we encourage you to consult with an attorney.

We also encourage parents and volunteers to read more about abuse and neglect, familiarize themselves with the resources available to report abuse and learn about the counseling and referral services that are available.

Additional Resources

A Parent’s Guide to the Little League Child Protection Program

To read more about mandatory reporting, with a summary of state reporting laws, visit: http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/statutes/manda.cfm

For state (toll-free) child abuse reporting numbers, visit: https://www.childwelfare.gov/contact/

To search the definitions of child maltreatment by state, visit: http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/state/

For crisis assistance, counseling, and referral services:

Childhelp is a national organization that provides crisis assistance and other counseling and referral services. The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with professional crisis counselors. All calls are anonymous. Contact them at 1.800.4.A.CHILD (1.800.422.4453), or visit http://www.childhelp.org/.