A new state law meant to keep kids safe has become a financial burden for some involved with the Hart district.
Assembly Bill 346, which went into effect with the new school year, would force parent volunteers to pay $60 for an FBI background check, said Pat Willett, spokeswoman for the William S. Hart Union High School District.

Although Hart district volunteers are fingerprinted through the Department of Justice, the procedure doesn’t assess a person’s information through the FBI.

“The FBI can give you national results if someone should be convicted of a felony in another state,” Willett said.

The Department of Justice and the FBI don’t share data, which has prompted the new fingerprinting requirement, Willett said.

The service will be provided at a discount through Dec. 31, Willett said.

“This is not a profit-making thing for the district, nor is it something the district has implemented,” Willett said.

The requirements do not apply to parents who volunteer in a classroom or on a field trip or for volunteers who supervise kids during school breaks.

“It’s really for people who are working with groups of kids not under the direct supervision of a credentialed teacher,” Willett said.

But the new law does affect the parents who volunteer for Valencia High School choir, which has put the student group in a financial pinch.

“It’s hard enough for the parents to chaperone,” said Christine Tavares, choral director. “Now there’s going to be another fingerprinting fee.”

About 60 parents will have to be fingerprinted again, even though they recently went through a screening process before the law went into effect, Tavares said.

The choir group relies on parent volunteers to chaperone students during competitions and performances.

“We can’t go unless they come with us,” she said, adding that one chaperone is needed for every 12 students.

The choir group go to about 10 competitions a year, along with choir tours.

“There’s a possibility that we’re going to have to drop a couple,” she said. “We need volunteers to go through the paperwork and pay a fee to be a chaperone.”

The group hopes to raise funds to pay for the fees, but Tavares points out that choir already raises thousands of dollars on its own through year round events.

“We’ve kind of maxed out on fundraisers,” she said.

Tavares’ concerns aren’t aimed at the Hart district, but rather at a system that prevents information about volunteers to be shared.

“It just seems like they are making another loophole and finding another way to charge a fee,” she said. “These databases should talk to each other.”

Even organizing a database that includes parent volunteer information from all of the Santa Clarita Valley school districts would make it easier, she said.