{"id":113072,"date":"2026-01-10T12:35:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T12:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/113072\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T12:35:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T12:35:23","slug":"changes-to-pinellas-county-schools-volunteer-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/113072\/","title":{"rendered":"Changes to Pinellas County School’s volunteer program"},"content":{"rendered":"

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0With the new year comes some big changes for volunteers in Pinellas County Schools. The district is now requiring all volunteers to go through a Level 2 background screening<\/a>, costing volunteers anywhere from $75 to $90.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

All Pinellas County school volunteers will be required to complete a Level 2 background screening
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Level 2 background screenings cost anywhere from $75 to $90, which volunteers are responsible for
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District officials say that if anyone needs financial assistance to cover the costs, they can reach out to the district
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LINK: More about Level 2, how to volunteer<\/a><\/p>\n

Curtis Campogni has two kids in Pinellas County Schools and volunteers himself. He says an email he received from the district prior to going on winter break is on his mind. It stated that as of January, all volunteers must undergo a Level 2 background screening and pay for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, moving to a Level 2 is definitely safer and prioritizing children\u2019s safety is the primary goal,\u201d said Campogni, and while he says Level 2 screening is absolutely safer for students, he has a lot of questions about the implementation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just simply the cost associated with it, it\u2019s the time, the communication,” he said. “It\u2019s some of the bureaucracy that comes with, well what does it mean to be a volunteer and what does it mean to be a mentor?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mistine Dawe is the director of strategic partnerships for Pinellas County Schools. She says all 9,000 Level 1 volunteers will need to become Level 2 volunteers by the end of June.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich means they will go through a background screening with clearinghouse,” Dawe said. “It\u2019s the same system we use for our employees, and we also use it for our contractors, so they will be fingerprinted. That allows us to have continuous monitoring; it also allows us to have any arrest notifications that come in.”<\/p>\n

Dawe says fingerprinting can cost anywhere from $75 to $90, but there is financial assistance in place for anyone who needs it. She says the district doesn\u2019t want to place any barriers for anyone who wants to give their time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we began to look at the safety and security of our schools, this was just an area that we knew we needed to make some adjustments in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Campogni\u00a0says he appreciates the added security and hopes volunteers don\u2019t get discouraged.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a mentor, or being a volunteer is about planting trees for the shade you might not see, but you will see it, so do not get discouraged,” he said. “Ask a lot of questions, get involved, and continue to wrap this village around our students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pinellas County Schools urges any volunteers who need assistance or have questions about the new policy to reach out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0With the new year comes some big changes for volunteers in Pinellas County Schools. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[4996,274,113,5711,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-113072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-app-education","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-fallon-silcox","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pinellas-county","14":"tag-st-pete","15":"tag-st-pete-headlines","16":"tag-st-pete-news","17":"tag-st-petersburg","18":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","19":"tag-st-petersburg-news","20":"tag-tampa","21":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}