Continuous screening: automatic quarterly re-screening

Why a once-a-year check leaves you eleven refresh cycles behind, how the automatic quarterly cycle works, and how to turn it off org-wide or for one volunteer.

A background check is a snapshot. It tells you what the record sources held on the day it ran — nothing about the day after. That would matter less if criminal-record data sat still. It does not.

Why every 3 months, specifically

The cadence isn't a guess or a sales number. It comes from how often our own sources change. We publish all 3,241 of them by name, with the refresh cadence of each, on the ungated sources page — you can check this yourself rather than take our word for it:

99.1% of our sources refresh at least monthly (2,989 of 3,241 on a monthly cycle, 222 weekly, 1 daily).
189 of our 200 sex-offender registries refresh weekly — the data most directly tied to who is safe around children and vulnerable adults is also the data that moves fastest.
Only 29 sources refresh more slowly than monthly, and the sources page names those too.

So the arithmetic is simple. Three months after a clear check, up to three full refresh cycles of new records have landed that your check could not have seen. Twelve months after a clear check, up to twelve have. Screening once a year doesn't mean your roster is a year out of date — it means you are making decisions on data that moved eleven times since anyone looked.

Same twelve months, same sources, same volunteers. The only variable is how often you look.

What continuous screening actually buys you

Not a cleaner report — a current one. Quarterly re-screening means the volunteers on your roster were fit to serve this quarter, not just on the day they applied. That is the difference between a file you can stand behind and a file that was true once.

What's on by default

Every organization starts with Re-screen interval: 3 months and Auto re-run checks when due: On. We turn it on by default because leaving a roster to go stale silently is the worse default. You stay in control of all of it — see Settings → Screening, or just ask Victor.

How to see YOUR current setting

The defaults above describe the standard configuration, not necessarily yours. To see what is actually in force right now, open Settings → Screening and read Re-screen interval and Auto re-run checks when due. That screen is the source of truth; anything else is a guess about your account.

How a cycle runs

Once a day we look for volunteers whose re-screen date has arrived. What happens next depends on one thing: whether that volunteer has a live re-screening authorization on file.

Situation	What happens
They have a live authorization	We email them about a week before the check, telling them the date, what we'll search, who pays, and how to opt out. On the date, the check runs automatically and spends 1 credit. No new signature needed — they already gave one that covers scheduled re-screening.
They don't (or it expired)	We email a short authorization form — not a full application. They review the disclosure, confirm their address, and sign. The check runs on submit. From then on, their future cycles run automatically on the path above.
Their authorization was revoked	Nothing runs, and nothing is charged. A volunteer can revoke from the link in any notice email, and it takes effect immediately.

What the volunteer agreed to

The authorization that makes the automatic path possible is deliberately bounded. It is not a blanket permission slip:

A 12-month term. It expires, and they re-authorize. There is no “for as long as you volunteer here” version.
A fixed cadence and a fixed scope. No more often than quarterly, and only the searches named in the disclosure.
Advance notice every time. We email before each scheduled check — never after.
One-click revocation. The link is in every notice email, needs no sign-in, and stops future screening immediately.

Why not re-sign every quarter?

We used to ask for a fresh signature before every single re-screen. It turns out the Fair Credit Reporting Act doesn't require that — it requires a permissible purpose at the time each report is obtained, which a properly bounded standing authorization provides. What re-signing every quarter did reliably produce was volunteers who never got around to it, and rosters that quietly stopped being current. The bounded authorization plus advance notice plus easy revocation is both more protective for the volunteer and more likely to actually keep your roster screened.

Turning it off — org-wide or for one person

Both are supported, and they are different things. Reach for the second one far more often than the first.

You want to…	Do this
Stop re-screening one volunteer	Someone who has stopped serving, is on leave, or shouldn't be re-screened: turn off continuous screening for that volunteer on their profile, or ask Victor (“stop re-screening Jamie Rivera”). Their record, badge and history are untouched, and you can still run a one-off check any time. Use this instead of switching off the whole org.
Stop re-screening everyone	Turn Auto re-run checks when due off in Settings → Screening. Nobody is re-screened automatically; instead your admins get a monthly reminder of who is due, so you can run them with one click.
Change the rhythm, not switch it off	Set Re-screen interval (months) to whatever suits your program. The shortest allowed is 3 months — that is the most often a volunteer's re-screening authorization permits, so a lower number (including 0) is saved as 3. Changing the number re-schedules everyone already on your roster: each volunteer's next re-screen moves to the new interval after their last check. Bear the refresh rates above in mind when you pick a number — anything longer than a quarter means more refresh cycles you haven't looked at.

What it costs, and never running dry

Each re-screen is one credit, exactly like any other check. Credits never expire. A single check is $10; bundles bring the per-check price down, and the 200-check bundle ($1,000) works out to $5 per check with a bundle purchase — the lowest we offer. See pricing.

Because continuous screening is on by default, an empty balance would stop it mid-cycle. Automatic top-up is off until you turn it on. In buy-credits checkout, check the box to refill one bundle (the 10-pack by default) on that card when your balance reaches zero. You can also turn it on, change the bundle, or switch it off in Settings → Screening. Each refill emails a receipt and is capped at four top-ups per calendar month.

We only charge a card you opted in for

Automatic top-up charges the card from a purchase where you checked the refill box, or from a later purchase made while the switch is already on. The amount and the zero-balance trigger are shown before you pay. Turning the switch on in Settings does not by itself save a card — the next purchase does. A card from a purchase made while top-up was off is not charged.

Guardrails

Guardrail	What happens
Advance notice is not optional	The system will not run a scheduled check until the notice has actually gone out and the volunteer has had the full week. A volunteer who comes due the same day they are notified waits.
Prior onboarding required	Only volunteers who already completed initial onboarding (or were imported with attestation) are ever re-screened or contacted.
No duplicates	A volunteer with a check already in progress, or an open authorization link, is never contacted or charged twice.
A failed check stays due	If a scheduled check can't complete, the due date is not moved forward. It stays due and is retried, rather than silently skipping a quarter.
Out of credits pauses, it never skips	If automatic top-up is off or unavailable, re-screening pauses and emails you — nobody is quietly passed over.
You stay informed	You get a summary whenever a cycle re-screens someone, sends authorization links, or pauses. Completed checks notify your admins as usual if Settings → Notifications → background check completes is on (default).

API customers can send the same short authorization link with POST /api/v1/volunteers/{id}/rescreen and stop future cycles by archiving with PATCH /api/v1/volunteers/{id} ({ "status": "archived" }). See REST API & webhooks.

Not the same as a volunteer's auto-renew switch

Organization continuous screening (this article) is org-paid and lives in Settings → Screening. A volunteer who bought their own badge can separately flip Quarterly auto-renew on their portal — a large ON/OFF slider under the badge. That one charges their saved card each quarter and is theirs to turn off.

Your FCRA responsibility

Every background check needs the volunteer's authorization, and we hold a record of exactly what each volunteer signed and when. Deciding what to do with a result is still yours — VolunteerBadge never sets a volunteer's status for you. Keep your own program records current.