VIRTUS Training

VIRTUS training will be offered at Holy Trinity twice per school year.  Training dates can be found on the Main Calendar page.  This training is required for all who are new to the parish as volunteers, parents who serve at the school, coaches, and any new staff as part of the Child Protection Program.

Please register in advance at the VIRTUS website.

Holy Trinity School greatly values its family volunteers. Without your volunteer help, we would be unable to function. It is because of your volunteer service, which is essential to HTS.

HTS and the Archdiocese of Washington are passionately committed to creating a safe school environment for your children.  This includes preventing all forms of physical and sexual abuse and educating all adults who have contact with our children about abuse prevention.  Toward these goals, the Archdiocese of Washington’s Child Protection Policy requires that all employees and volunteers who work with children must complete a Child Protection Training and Education Program.  The Archdiocese has chosen the VIRTUS training program, which it believes incorporates proven best practice standards for the prevention of child abuse, to educate adults to be aware of how to protect children from sexual abuse.

The Child Protection Policy involves completion of the VIRTUS training and a related fingerprinting/criminal background check.  The Archdiocese requires that all Archdiocesan personnel and volunteers who have substantial contact with children must be in compliance with the Child Protection Policy.  As required by the Archdiocese, HTS has extended this policy to all school volunteers, including parent volunteers.  The HTS policy is that all volunteers who are likely to have contact with children that is not incidental must complete the VIRTUS training and fingerprinting/criminal background check.

Our sincere thanks to those HTS parents who have already completed the VIRTUS training and fingerprinting/criminal background check.  In response to feedback from those parents and others, we realized that more explanation about the Policy and guidance on the process was needed.  This packet is designed to give HTS parent volunteers information about the Child Protection Policy and comprehensive guidance on how to comply with the requirements of the VIRTUS training, fingerprinting and criminal background check.  This section of the website contains the following:

HTS is committed to providing a safe environment to all children entrusted to our care and assisting each child to grow in grace and wisdom.  HTS fully supports the Child Protection Policy and wishes to help our adult volunteers comply with the Policy in the most efficient way so we can all benefit from your wonderful service.  We are aware that the purpose of this program is to ensure the safety of our children.  It is our highest priority.  We thank you for all the work you do for us.  Please do not hesitate to contact the HTS VIRTUS Coordinator, Mary Cooter with any questions you may have.

 

Updated:  August 2011