South Carolina S 809: Robert Smalls Portrait

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 809 Text of Previous Version (Jan. 14, 2026) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 809

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY ADDING CHAPTER 
2 TO TITLE 63, SO AS TO REQUIRE YOUTH SPORTS ORGANIZATIONS TO REQUIRE ALL 
COACHES TO UNDERGO A BACKGROUND CHECK.

Be it enacted by the 
General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Title 63 of the S.C. Code is amended by adding:

CHAPTER 2

Background Checks for Youth Sports

 Section 
63-2-10. (A) As used in this chapter:

 (1) "Youth 
sports organization" means a private for-profit or not-for-profit organization 
that, as part of its core function, provides persons who are less than eighteen 
years of age the opportunity to participate in scheduled competitive or 
recreational sporting activities.

 (2) "Coach" 
means a person employed or volunteering as a coach, manager, or supervisor of a 
youth athletic activity but does not include occasional assistance with or 
support of the youth athletic activity by a person, including the action of 
other volunteers or employees of the youth sports organization in a passing, 
general, or nominal manner.

 (B) A youth 
sports organization must require all coaches to undergo a state 
fingerprint-based background check to be conducted by the State Law Enforcement 
Division to determine any state criminal history and a fingerprint-based 
background check to be conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to 
determine any other criminal history. Additionally, the persons described in 
this section must also undergo a check of the State Central Registry of Child 
Abuse and Neglect, DSS department records, the equivalent registry system for 
each state in which the person has resided for five years preceding an 
application for employment or as a volunteer, the National Sex Offender Public 
Website, and the state sex offender registry.

 (C) The 
South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation 
are authorized to retain and store fingerprints for further use in the 
identification of persons including, but not limited to, use in identifying 
unsolved latent prints. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the 
Federal Bureau of Investigation are authorized to provide the youth sports 
organization with current and future information regarding the fingerprints 
stored, including arrests, convictions, dispositions, warrants, and other 
information available to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the 
Federal Bureau of Investigation, such as civil and criminal information.

 (D) Costs 
for Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprint-based background checks 
required for prospective coaches of a youth sports organization must be paid by 
the individual or entity requesting the background checks.

 (E) The 
youth sports organization may consider all information available, including the 
person's pardoned convictions or pleas and the circumstances surrounding them, 
to determine whether the person is unfit or otherwise unsuited for coaching in 
the youth sports organization.

SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval 
by the Governor.

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This web page was last updated on January 14, 2026 at 01:50 PM