Safe Guarding Youth Training is required for all registered 18+ members of Scouting America and must be completed before submitting an adult application.
Leadership Selection
The Scouting America takes great pride in the quality of our adult leadership. Being a leader in Scouting is a privilege, not a right. The quality of the program and the safety of our youth members call for high-quality adult leaders. We work closely with our chartered organizations to help recruit the best possible leaders for their units.
The adult application requests background information that should be checked by the unit committee or the chartered organization before accepting an applicant for unit leadership. While no current screening techniques exist that can identify every potential child molester, we can reduce the risk of accepting a child molester by learning all we can about an applicant for a leadership position–his or her experience with children, why he or she wants to be a Scout leader, and what discipline techniques he or she would use.
Reading on Youth Protection
Why Youth Protection?
Over the decades, the Scouting America has been a leader in developing training and policies designed to keep young people safe. These comprehensive policies were considered groundbreaking when they were developed and soon became the standard used by other organizations for safeguarding youth. But when it comes to the safety of children, our goal is to continually improve.
Sustained vigilance on youth protection is a central part of our culture.
Over the past two years, we have worked with experts in the field of child abuse, child sexual abuse, and maltreatment to develop new training and resources that will further strengthen our ability to protect youth. These changes include:
Fully updated and revised Youth Protection Training developed with leaders in the field of child abuse prevention, including insights from experts and survivors and the latest strategies for recognizing and preventing major forms of abuse. This is the designated Youth Protection Training for all adults.
Expanded youth protection content across all our communications channels will inform and engage our volunteers and parents.
An expanded ScoutsFirst Helpline to aid volunteers and families in addressing potentially dangerous situations.
The BSA also provides unlimited counseling and support for healing to anyone who has ever been abused in Scouting.
Youth Protection Training for youth members will be available in 2019.
In addition to updated training and resources, we recently announced new policies to ensure compliance with mandatory training requirements, including:
As of January 1, 2018, no new leader can be registered without first completing youth protection training.
As of January 1, 2018, no council, regional, or national leader will be allowed to renew their registration if they are not current on their Youth Protection Training.
As of September 1, 2017, no unit may re-charter without all leaders being current on their Youth Protection Training. Registrars no longer have the ability to approve charters without full compliance.
Youth Protection training must be renewed every 2 years to maintain a valid registration and recharter with a local unit. Training can be completed online at my.scouting.org. You do not need to be a registered member to take the training, in fact all parents and any interested community members are encouraged to take Youth Protection Training. Taking Youth Protection Training (Formerly YPT, now YPT2) is easy! It should approximately 55-60 minutes to complete.
The Boy Scouts of America places the greatest importance on creating the most secure environment possible for our youth members. To maintain such an environment, the BSA developed numerous procedural and leadership selection policies and provides parents and leaders with resources for the Cub Scout, Boy Scout, and Venturing programs.