Volunteering at Ridgway Schools
Volunteer Application Procedure
At Ridgway School District, volunteers play an important role in the success and well-being of our students. Becoming a volunteer not only supports our schools and teachers but also helps to create a vibrant and welcoming environment for every student.
Introducing Raptor: Simplifying the Volunteer Experience
We are excited to introduce the Raptor Volunteer Management System—a tool that streamlines the volunteer process while ensuring the highest standards of safety. Raptor makes it easier than ever for you to get involved in your child’s education by simplifying background checks and making the process more accessible. With Raptor, you can focus more on what truly matters—supporting our students, teachers and staff.
Visitor/Volunteer Management Raptor is a visitor/volunteer management system, which enhances school security through database screening and printing of photo identification badges for all visitors/volunteers in our schools. ID badges must be worn at all times on our campuses. Additionally, Raptor allows our District to maintain a database of all visitors and volunteers.
Raptor Data Security to review Raptor Technologies Data security & privacy FAQs
Instant Screening Process: The Raptor System ensures that all visitors and volunteers to a school campus are instantly screened against the registered sex offender databases in all 50 states.
Custom Databases: Raptor can check visitors against a school's custom database to ensure safety alerts are managed for school staff.
Efficient Reporting: The system can also create quick and easy reports for schools, or the entire school district, which can help with tracking volunteer hours.
Trusted Protection: It is trusted by more K-12 schools to protect students, teachers and support staff than every other system combined.
Raptor Technologies Visitor and Volunteer Management System
Part of keeping students and faculty safe is knowing who is in our buildings at all times, and the Raptor system will allow us to do that. The Raptor system will better allow us to screen visitors, contractors, and volunteers in our schools and provide us with a safer environment for our students and staff.
Upon entering a district building, visitors will be asked to present an ID such as a Driver’s License, which can either be scanned or manually entered into the system. If a parent or guardian for any reason does not have a US government-issued ID, the school staff member can use any form of identification and manually enter the person’s name into the Raptor system. The Raptor system will check to ensure that registered sexual offenders are not entering our school campuses without our knowledge. The Raptor system checks the visitor's name and date of birth for comparison with a national database of registered sex offenders. The registered sex offender database is the only official database checked by the Raptor system. No other data from the ID is gathered or recorded and the information is not shared with any outside agency. Once entry is approved, Raptor will issue a badge that identifies the visitor, the date, and the purpose of their visit. A visitor’s badge will not be necessary for those who visit our schools simply to drop off an item in the office or pick up paperwork.
The safety of our students is our highest priority and the Raptor visitor management system allows us to quickly identify those that may present a danger to our students. Thank you in advance for your understanding and your support in enhancing the school safety protocols in our district.
Volunteer Application Instructions
All volunteers must complete the following steps in order to serve at Ridgway Schools:
Applicants must complete the Online Volunteer Application and the District Volunteer Agreement.
Please note that there is a $32.00 background check fee due at the time of submission.
An active email address and a valid Social Security number are required to complete the application.
The applicant must be sponsored by a District staff member, and the staff member’s name must be included on the District Volunteer Agreement.
Completed agreement can be submitted by email to firstname.lastname@example.org or in-person to school office managers for building principal signature.
Background Check and Notification:
Once your Volunteer Application, Background Check, and Volunteer Agreement have been received, you will be notified via email that you are eligible to volunteer.
Important: You are NOT eligible to volunteer until you have received the email confirmation from the District Office.
Approval and Volunteering:
After receiving email confirmation that your application has been approved, you are welcome to begin volunteering.
Approved background screenings are valid for 24 months, after which they will need to be renewed.
What level of background checks does RSD conduct?
Level 3 Volunteer background screenings through Raptor: Includes a National Criminal Database search, Social Security Number verification, address verification, multiple name check, Terrorist Watch List check, and unlimited county searches going back seven years’ residence history. The Raptor volunteer background screenings cost $32 per screening and are valid for 24 months.
For questions or requests for financial assistance to cover the cost of the background checks, please contact District Administrative Assistant, Dona Hawken, by email at email@example.com or by phone at (970) 626-4320.