TPC Journal-V6, Issue 4- FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor /Volume 6, Issue 4 385 Conclusion Since screening and gatekeeping is such an important role of a training program, the use of CBCs is an important topic for counselor education. The use of CBCs may assist counselor educators in executing their ethics related to not endorsing CITs they believe to be unqualified (ACA, 2014). The consequences of graduating a student with a criminal history could be great and ultimately put future clients at risk for harm. Perhaps CACREP could assist programs in understanding if and how to use CBCs by adding ideas for best practices in their accreditation standards. Previous literature has indicated that the field of counseling may benefit from creating more formalized screening procedures that include objective and reliable measures (Swank & Smith-Adcock, 2014). The current study offers support that programs are using CBCs as a part of the admission process and to continually evaluate their students. Given this is a trend, it may be important to establish best practices and policies around CBCs so that programs are using them in consistent ways. Conflict of Interest and Funding Disclosure The authors reported no conflict of interest or funding contributions for the development of this manuscript. References American Counseling Association. (2010). Licensure requirements for professional counselors – 2010 . Retrieved from http://www.counseling.org/docs/licensure/72903_excerpt_for_web.pdf?sfvrsn=2 American Counseling Association. (2014). 2014 ACA code of ethics . Alexandria, VA: Author. American Counseling Association, Office of Public Policy and Legislation. (2011). A guide to state laws and regulations on professional school counseling . Retrieved from https://www.counseling.org/docs/licensure/ schoolcounselingregs2011.pdf?sfvrsn=2 Brear, P., & Dorrian, J. (2010). Gatekeeping or gate slippage? A national survey of counseling educators in Australian undergraduate and postgraduate academic training programs. Training and Education in Professional Psychology , 4 , 264–273. doi:10.1037/a0020714 Brodersen, M., Swick, D., & Richman, J. (2009). Risks and mitigating factors in decisions to accept students with criminal records. Journal of Social Work Education , 45 , 349–363. doi:10.5175/JSWE.2009.200800081 Brown-Rice, K., & Furr, S. (2014). Lifting the empathy veil: Engaging in competent gatekeeping. In Ideas and research you can use: VISTAS 2012. Retrieved from https://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/ vistas/article_11.pdf?sfvrsn=12 Burns, K., Frank-Stromborg, M., Teytelman, Y., & Herren, J. D. (2004). Criminal background checks: Necessary admission criteria? Journal of Nursing Education , 43 , 125–129. Cowburn, M., & Nelson, P. (2008). Safe recruitment, social justice, and ethical practice: Should people who have criminal convictions be allowed to train as social workers? Social Work Education , 27 , 293–306. doi:10.1080/02615470701380394 Erwin, W. J., & Toomey, M. E. (2005). Use of criminal background checks in counselor education. Counselor Education and Supervision , 44 , 305–318. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6978.2005.tb01758.x Farnsworth, J., & Springer, P. J., (2006). Background checks for nursing students: What are schools doing? Nursing Education Perspectives , 27 , 148–153. Gay, L. R., Mills, G. E., & Airasian, P. (2009). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and applications (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Kerl, S., & Eichler, M. (2005). The loss of innocence: Emotional costs to serving as gatekeepers to the counseling profession. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health , 1 , 71–88. doi:10.1300/J456v01n03_05 Kleshinski, J., Case, S. T., Davis, D., Heinrich, G. F., & Witzburg, R. A. (2011). Commentary: Criminal