• VOLUNTEER

    An important activity that helps your child – and his or her school!

    Volunteering is an important part of your child’s education. Volunteers can be parents, grandparents or interested community members.  Volunteers make a difference in our students’ lives and play an invaluable role in their education and development. Students’ behaviors improve drastically when they know their parents or other interested parties are a part of the school.

    Volunteering can occur in various capacities throughout the school year. It includes participation in PTA and Local School Council meetings to assist the school in its progress toward excellence. Volunteer activities vary from school to school, and volunteers can help with a wide variety of activities in many places in the school, such as:

    • Classroom
    • Booster tutoring
    • Office
    • Library
    • Field trips-driving, escorting
    • Science lab
    • Musical assistance, such as violin tuning
    • Noon supervision
    • Kinder playground supervision
    • Art

     

    Volunteers are an integral part of our instructional program. Below is the APS procedure for registering school volunteers. All volunteers are considered a mandated reporter, this means that each volunteer will be responsible for reporting any case of suspected abuse.

    Procedure: 

    1. Each school will determine the level of the volunteer’s planned activities based on the guidelines in regulation GAK(1)-R(1).
    2. If the volunteer’s activities will include level 3 activities (unsupervised interaction with students), a designated school employee will contact HR (Valeria Richardson) to arrange for fingerprinting/background check. Payment for the background check may be provided by the volunteer or funds designated by the local school or PTA. Volunteers may not participate in level 3 activities until they have been cleared by HR. Volunteer background checks must be repeated once every five (5) years.
    3. Each school will advise the volunteer to complete a volunteer release form and the Volunteer Child Abuse Training.
    4. Designated school personnel will make a copy of the volunteer’s state-issued photo identification.
    5. For level 2 volunteers, school personnel will go to the Georgia and federal sex offender registry websites, search for the individual and complete the bottom portion of the volunteer release form.
    6. If the prospective volunteer is a registered sex offender or fails the background check, volunteer is disqualified from all volunteer activities. The school will keep volunteer release forms for disqualified volunteers on file in main office.
    7. Once approved, the school will keep all volunteer release forms (including copy of photo ID) on file in main office. The school will ensure that level 2 volunteers and the staff members that volunteers will be assisting are aware that an APS employee or at least two (2) other adult volunteers must be present with them at all times.

     

     * Mandated Reporter Law - O.C.G.A. §19-7-5 (2016)


    (a) The purpose of this Code section is to provide for the protection of children. It is intended that mandatory reporting will cause the protective services of the state to be brought to bear on the situation in an effort to prevent abuses, to protect and enhance the welfare of children, and to preserve family life wherever possible. This Code section shall be liberally construed so as to carry out the purposes thereof.

    (b) As used in this Code section, the term:

    (1) "Abortion" shall have the same meaning as set forth in Code Section 15-11-681.

    (2) "Abused" means subjected to child abuse.

    (3) "Child" means any person under 18 years of age.

    (4) "Child abuse" means:

    (A) Physical injury or death inflicted upon a child by a parent or caretaker thereof by other than accidental means; provided, however, that physical forms of discipline may be used as long as there is no physical injury to the child;

    (B) Neglect or exploitation of a child by a parent or caretaker thereof;

    (C) Endangering a child;

    (D) Sexual abuse of a child; or

    (E) Sexual exploitation of a child.

    However, no child who in good faith is being treated solely by spiritual means through prayer in accordance with the tenets and practices of a recognized church or religious denomination by a duly accredited practitioner thereof shall, for that reason alone, be considered to be an abused child.

    (5) "Child service organization personnel" means persons employed by or volunteering at a business or an organization, whether public, private, for profit, not for profit, or voluntary, that provides care, treatment, education, training, supervision, coaching, counseling, recreational programs, or shelter to children.

    (6) "Clergy" means ministers, priests, rabbis, imams, or similar functionaries, by whatever name called, of a bona fide religious organization.

    (6.1) "Endangering a child" means:

    (A) Any act described by subsection (d) of Code Section 16-5-70;

    (B) Any act described by Code Section 16-5-73;

    (C) Any act described by subsection (l) of Code Section 40-6-391; or

    (D) Prenatal abuse, as such term is defined in Code Section 15-11-2.

    (7) "Pregnancy resource center" means an organization or facility that:

    (A) Provides pregnancy counseling or information as its primary purpose, either for a fee or as a free service;

    (B) Does not provide or refer for abortions;

    (C) Does not provide or refer for FDA approved contraceptive drugs or devices; and

    (D) Is not licensed or certified by the state or federal government to provide medical or health care services and is not otherwise bound to follow the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, P.L. 104-191, or other state or federal laws relating to patient confidentiality.

    (8) "Reproductive health care facility" means any office, clinic, or any other physical location that provides abortions, abortion counseling, abortion referrals, or gynecological care and services.

    (9) "School" means any public or private pre-kindergarten, elementary school, secondary school, technical school, vocational school, college, university, or institution of postsecondary education.

    (10) "Sexual abuse" means a person's employing, using, persuading, inducing, enticing, or coercing any minor who is not such person's spouse to engage in any act which involves:

    (A) Sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex;

    (B) Bestiality;

    (C) Masturbation;

    (D) Lewd exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person;

    (E) Flagellation or torture by or upon a person who is nude;

    (F) Condition of being fettered, bound, or otherwise physically restrained on the part of a person who is nude;

    (G) Physical contact in an act of apparent sexual stimulation or gratification with any person's clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, or buttocks or with a female's clothed or unclothed breasts;

    (H) Defecation or urination for the purpose of sexual stimulation; or

    (I) Penetration of the vagina or rectum by any object except when done as part of a recognized medical procedure.

    Sexual abuse shall include consensual sex acts when the sex acts are between minors if any individual is less than 14 years of age; provided, however, that it shall not include consensual sex acts when the sex acts are between a minor and an adult who is not more than four years older than the minor. This provision shall not be deemed or construed to repeal any law concerning the age or capacity to consent.

    (11) "Sexual exploitation" means conduct by any person who allows, permits, encourages, or requires a child to engage in:

    (A) Prostitution, as defined in Code Section 16-6-9; or

    (B) Sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing any visual or print medium depicting such conduct, as defined in Code Section 16-12-100.

    If you are interested in becoming a volunteer at Kindezi at Gideons Elementary, please contact Ms. Tiffani Barrett, at (404) 802-7711 or at tbarrett@kindezi.org.