Background checks in the club

Every year, the Pathfinder Club leadership team welcomes new volunteers, and sooner or later someone asks about a background check for youth ministry volunteers: does the club have to ask for one? Since January 2024, Brazil's Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente (ECA, the Statute of Children and Adolescents) has had an article on the subject, Article 59-A, and it does not apply the same way to everyone. This guide explains what the Brazilian law says, what the Seventh-day Adventist Church already requires of its leaders, how to get the certificates and how to run a respectful screening, with the documents stored safely.

🧭Background check for youth ministry volunteers: why did the issue reach the club?

Law 14.811 of January 12, 2024, added Article 59-A to Brazil's Statute of Children and Adolescents (Law 8.069/1990). The new article deals with criminal record certificates for people who work with children and adolescents. The law took effect on publication, on January 15, 2024, and the question soon reached churches and clubs.

The Pathfinder Club, the Adventist Church's ministry for young people ages 10 to 15, already has conduct rules for adults, explained in the guide to child protection in the Pathfinder Club. Those rules apply during activities. The certificate comes earlier, when the club chooses who will take on a role, and helps check whether there is a criminal record that should keep the person from serving with children.

⚖️What does Article 59-A of Brazil's ECA say, word for word?

Article 59-A has two parts, aimed at different groups. The caput (the main text of the article) states, in free translation, that "public or private social institutions that carry out activities with children and adolescents and that receive public funds shall require and keep criminal record certificates for all their collaborators, which shall be updated every 6 (six) months".

The sole paragraph applies to "educational and similar establishments, public or private, that carry out activities with children and adolescents, regardless of whether they receive public funds", which "shall keep up-to-date registration forms and criminal record certificates for all their collaborators". No 6-month deadline is written here.

The law does not distinguish between employees and volunteers (it says "collaborators") and does not define what a "similar" establishment is. The article sits in the ECA chapter on education, culture, sports and leisure, but the text does not list which activities are covered.

Source: ECA, Article 59-A, added by Law 14.811/2024 (text on Planalto, the Brazilian Presidency's legislation site, checked in October 2026; free translation).

⛪Are churches and Pathfinder Clubs required to do background checks under Law 14.811/2024?

With public money in the activity. If the church, the Conference or a project linked to them receives public funds for activities with children, through an agreement or partnership, the situation comes close to the caput, with certificates renewed every 6 months. Talk to the Conference or Mission legal team before you start.

At school. A school, Adventist or not, is an educational establishment and falls under the sole paragraph, with or without public funds.

In the local church club, without public funds. The word "similar" allows a broad reading, which would reach regular educational activities like the club's, and a strict reading, limited to institutions that resemble schools; the law does not choose between them. We found no mention of Article 59-A in the Pathfinder Club Administrative Manual (South American Division, SAD, 2020 edition, written before the law) or in the SAD's public guidelines. That is why this guide treats the certificate as good practice, without claiming a legal obligation: confirm with your Conference or Mission.

The request has support in Brazil's labor courts: in 2017, in a repetitive-appeals ruling on employment, the Superior Labor Court (Tribunal Superior do Trabalho, TST) held that it is legitimate to require the certificate from people who care for children, the elderly or legally incapable persons, and warned that the requirement gives rise to moral damages when it is discriminatory or unjustified. The ruling does not address volunteering.

📘What does the Adventist Church already require of Pathfinder leaders?

Before Law 14.811, the Seventh-day Adventist Church already had a rule broader than any certificate. On page 61 of the Pathfinder Club Administrative Manual (2020 Portuguese edition), the SAD states that people "convicted, accused or recognized as having committed physical or sexual abuse" (free translation) may not work in Church programs for children, adolescents or adults. The Manual does not require a certificate; the certificate is one way to check that the rule is being followed.

Notice the scope: the Manual also bars people who have been accused, while the Federal Police certificate only counts final convictions, those that can no longer be appealed (trânsito em julgado, in Brazilian law). A "nada consta" (nothing on record) certificate completes the screening without replacing it.

In its Guidelines on Prevention, Correction and Restoration in Situations of Sexual Abuse and Harassment (in Portuguese), published on its official website, the SAD advises that people invested in the clubs' leadership classes be "assessed in accordance with the child and adolescent protection legislation of their respective country".

The Manual also says who chooses: the Nominating Committee names the Director and the Associate Directors every year (p. 77), and the Club Executive Committee appoints Counselors and Instructors (p. 82); a Counselor must be at least 16 (p. 72). Screening fits best at those moments, described in the guides to the Nominating Committee and to recruiting counselors.

A person who has been reprimanded at any level of the courts for involvement in any kind of sexual abuse of minors may never hold leadership roles.South American Division, Guidelines on prevention, correction and restoration in situations of sexual abuse and harassment (adventistas.org, free translation from Portuguese)

🪪How do you get a free criminal record certificate from Brazil's Federal Police?

The Federal Police Criminal Record Certificate (Certidão de Antecedentes Criminais, CAC) is issued online through the "Emitir Certidão de Antecedentes Criminais" service on gov.br, the Brazilian government portal. According to the official page, it is free, open to all citizens, served immediately and valid for 90 days. Ideally, the volunteer issues it and hands the PDF to the club.

The online certificate only shows "nada consta" (nothing on record): the Federal Police does not issue a "consta" (record found) certificate through this service, because that information requires in-person confirmation. And in this service, under Article 6 of Law 12.037/2009, only final convictions count for civil purposes.

Anyone with a namesake or a mismatch in their CPF (Brazil's individual taxpayer registry number) receives a protocol number, takes the original documents to a Federal Police office and waits up to 15 days. Ask for the certificates well ahead of time, before a campout. To check authenticity, the club enters the certificate number in the free "Validar Certidão de Antecedentes Criminais" service.

🏛️State and federal criminal record certificates in Brazil: what is the difference?

The Federal Police warns that the federal database does not hold 100% of the information from the State Courts and the Civil Police forces, because not every agency is required to send it data, and advises getting certificates from each agency and each unit of the federation. In the two example states, the state part comes from the police (a criminal record attestation) and from the Court of Justice (a criminal case distribution certificate).

São Paulo. The Atestado de Antecedentes Criminais from the Instituto de Identificação Ricardo Gumbleton Daunt (IIRGD), part of the state Public Security Department, is free and can be requested on the website, through the app or at Poupatempo (citizen service centers), only by people over 18; the online request uses a São Paulo RG (state ID card), and anyone with an RG from another state books an in-person appointment. At the Court of Justice (TJSP), the Certidão de Distribuição de Ações Criminais is usually requested online (some cases require going to the courthouse) and is available within 5 days.

Minas Gerais. The Civil Police (PCMG) issues the Atestado de Antecedentes on the spot, online, through the MG App or at self-service kiosks, for people with a Minas Gerais RG; with an RG from another state, the request is made in person. The document carries a code to validate its authenticity.

In other states, look for the Civil Police, the Public Security Department and the Court of Justice. If the volunteer moved recently, ask for the certificates from the previous state too.

Sources: gov.br (Federal Police), Poupatempo (SSP-SP), mg.gov.br (PCMG) and TJSP, October 2026. Rules vary by state.

✅How do you screen Pathfinder Club volunteers, step by step?

The certificate works best inside a short process that is the same for everyone. The plan in the table is the portal's suggestion, inspired by the guide published on January 21, 2026, by Adventist Risk Management (ARM), the official insurance and risk management company of the Adventist Church worldwide, based on the North American Division child protection plan. That guide asks for six months of membership before serving and a local and national criminal check repeated every 2 to 3 years; it is an international reference, with no binding force in the SAD.

Every adult who has regular contact with the Pathfinders or stays overnight at campouts goes through screening, from the leadership team to the drivers, and training includes the rules for the Pathfinder WhatsApp group.

For an Associate Counselor aged 16 or 17, the certificate may not be available: in São Paulo, the state attestation requires the person to be 18. And the ECA forbids disclosing police and court records about an offense attributed to an adolescent (ato infracional, Article 143); a certificate of those records is issued only with a judge's authorization (Article 144). For these young leaders, references, a conversation with the parents, training and serving alongside an adult Counselor are what count, as in the plan to onboard a new counselor.

The portal's suggestion, based on the Manual (SAD, 2020), Article 59-A of the ECA and ARM (January 21, 2026).

🔒Where should you store volunteer background checks without breaching Brazil's LGPD?

The certificate is personal data. Brazil's General Data Protection Law (LGPD, Law 13.709/2018) requires, in Article 6, respect for principles such as purpose (using it only for the stated purpose) and necessity (collecting the minimum), and Article 46 requires security measures against unauthorized access.

Criminal records are not on the list of sensitive personal data in Article 5, II, which covers racial or ethnic origin, religious belief, political opinion, health, sex life and genetic or biometric data, among others. By the letter of the law, then, the certificate falls outside the special legal bases of Article 11, reserved for sensitive data. Even so, a criminal record can expose a person to discrimination, and Article 6, IX, forbids processing for unlawful or abusive discriminatory purposes.

• Explain on the form what the certificate is for and who will see it.
• Keep it in a locked or digital folder, accessible only to the Director and the Secretary, or to whoever the Conference designates.
• Never send a certificate to a WhatsApp group.
• If the Conference does not ask for copies to be kept, note the date, number and validation result on the form and give the paper back to the volunteer; those covered by Article 59-A must keep the certificates.
• Agree with the Conference on how long to keep it and, at the end, shred the paper and delete the file, as Article 16 of the LGPD provides for data that has served its purpose.

If any record shows up, the matter stays between the Director and the pastor, with guidance from the Conference. A record of physical or sexual abuse ends the conversation, under the Manual's rule; other records call for case-by-case review, handled discreetly. Keeping the rest of the club's paperwork is covered in the guide to required club documents.