As we hope you are all aware, in order to comply with new requirements from the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (“USOPC”), USA Hockey will be implementing a national level background screening policy. Beginning on April 1, 2020, background screening will be conducted by our national background screen vendor, NCSI, and information on background screening will be included following your registration.  

If you were screened after April 1, 2019 for the 2019-20 season, your screen is valid for the 2020-21 season, and you will not need to be screened under the new system until prior to the 2021-22 season. If your most recent screen is from prior to April 1, 2019, you will need to be screened under the new system, after April 1, 2020, in order to participate in the upcoming season.   

All new screens submitted through the new NCSI national screening program after April 1, 2020 will be valid for two seasons.  For example, a screen submitted and approved on April 15, 2020 will be valid through the end of the 2021-22 season, which is August 31, 2022.

Background screens through NCSI under the national program will cost $30 for all domestic screens. For international screens (members who have lived outside of the US for six consecutive months in any one county during the past 7 years) the flat rate fee in $150. If that country is solely Canada, the flat rate fee is $75.

Please note that all coaches, officials, board members, employees, volunteers, billets, and anyone else who will have regular contact with, or authority over, minor athletes are required to submit to a background screen before any such contact with minor athletes. The complete list of those that require screening can be found below.

Beginning in the 2020-21 season, pursuant to new requirements from the USOPC, USA Hockey has implemented a National Background Screening Program to replace the background screening programs that had been manages by each respective USA Hockey Affiliate and Junior League.

USA Hockey requires that all officials, coaches and volunteers, and other individuals 18 years of age or older who will have regular contact with, or authority over, minor Participants, complete a background screen as follows.

At the National Level:

• All members of the USA Hockey Board of Directors, and each member of a USA Hockey council, committee, or section shall be screened upon their election or appointment to the position and then shall be re-screened every two (2) years, with a supplemental screen every other year.
• All USA Hockey employees shall be screened as a condition of their employment and then shall be re-screened every two (2) years, with a supplemental screen every other year.
• All coaches, instructors and other staff for any USA Hockey national or district camp, national team, select team, and officiating camps shall be screened as a condition of being selected for such position or shall have been screened by USA Hockey within the past two (2) years, with a supplemental screen every other year.
• All national and district tournament site host volunteers that will have direct access to minor participants shall be screened as a condition of being select for such position or shall have been screened by USA Hockey within the past two (2) years, with a supplemental screen every other year.
• All participants in the USA Hockey Junior Officiating Development Program shall be screened by USA Hockey within the past two (2) years, with a supplemental screen every other year.

At the Affiliate, Junior and College Levels:

• All coaches eighteen (18) years of age or older who will have regular contact with, or authority over, minor athletes are required to submit to a background screen before any such contact with minor athletes and shall be rescreened every two (2) years, with a supplemental screen every other year.
• All officials eighteen (18) years of age or older who will have regular contact with, or authority over, minor athletes are required to submit to a background screen before any such contact with minor athletes and shall be rescreened every two (2) years, with a supplemental screen every other year.
• All board members or officers of any affiliate or local program eighteen (18) years of age or older, regardless of whether the individual will have regular contact with, or authority over, minor athletes are required to submit to a background screen before entering into such role and shall be rescreened every two (2) years, with a supplemental screen every other year.
• All volunteers, billets and anyone else eighteen (18) years of age or older who will have regular contact with, or authority over, minor athletes are required to submit to a background screen before any such contact with minor athletes and shall be rescreened every two (2) years, with a supplemental screen every other year.
• All employees who are eighteen (18) years of age or older who will have regular contact with, or authority over, minor athletes are required to submit to a background screen before any such contact with minor athletes and shall be rescreened every two (2) years, with a supplemental screen every other year.

For the purposes of defining those person who have "regular contact" with minors, USA Hockey considers all of the following persons to have regular contact with minor Participants: (i) members of the Affiliate Board of Directors, (ii) Member Program administrators, including board members, hockey directors and other program staff who have regular contact with or authority over minor Participants, (iii) coaches, (iv) team managers, (v) officials/referees, (vi) locker room monitors, (vii) team drivers (unless professional transportation companies are used), (viii) travel chaperones, and (ix) other persons whose position within a USA Hockey, an Affiliate or Member Program allows them to have frequent or routine contact with minor Participants.

Conversely, USA Hockey does not consider persons serving solely in the following roles to have "regular contact" with or authority over minor Participants (not an exhaustive list): (i) scorekeepers, (ii) penalty box operations, (iii) concession stand workers, (iv) arena entry/ticket takers.

As a condition of its affiliation with USA Hockey, each Affiliate, junior league and the ASHA shall require that all Member Programs have the required volunteers and employees screened through the USA Hockey National Background Screen Program prior to participation or any access to minor participants.

Each Affiliate shall have an Affiliate Screening Coordinator (who may also be the Affiliate Safe Sport Coordinator) that is responsible for monitoring and reporting on compliance with the screening policy by the Affiliate and all of the Affiliate's Member Programs.

Should you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact Nicole Adams, PNAHA Safe Sport Coordinator.