AB465 gives parents more power to ensure those who coach their kids go through a tougher hiring process. The bill aims to weed out anyone with a history of violence or sexual abuse.
Thousands of community sports coaches across the Valley may now have to undergo a background check. The new law aims to weed out the people who could hurt your children from getting anywhere close to them.
Assembly Bill 465 kicked into law in 2014. The new legislation aims to protect kids in community youth sports programs from sexually abusive and violent people.
"You would hear on the news about what would be done to kids after practices or before practices. With the background check, it kind of relieves that pressure but you're not worrying as much," said parent, Rachelle Quaschnick.
Fresno and Clovis Unified already mandate all employees pass background checks before working with kids. But now parents in club sports can also request their team do the same for new hires. Coach Allen Nauheimer believes the change it a good one.
"I had no problems with it because I had nothing to hide." He told us he knew a number of people who weren't allowed to coach this year, "They found a lot of coaches that didn't pass," Nauheimer said.
The bill's author assembly woman Susan Bonilla says community sports teams are now mandated to run those tests but doing so is the best and safest practice.
"People who are drawn to volunteering around young people who are sexual predators - primarily I think we were looking to make sure those people would be identified early on. Even if they know the background check is going to be run - they would then not volunteer," added Bonilla.
