Background checks and clearances for Drexel clinicals

Drexel's compliance page lists the three checks by name and explains how each is completed. Only the first runs without further action from you.

Nothing on this list can be recycled from an earlier job or program. Asked whether a past fingerprint check counts, Drexel's FAQ answers that it requires a background check done specifically for your clinical rotations. The profile itself is explained on CastleBranch at Drexel.

Drexel links the timing to its contracts: its agreements with clinical sites require students to have background checks completed annually. That is tighter than Pennsylvania's own clearance law, which asks for renewal at least every 60 months from the date of the oldest clearance.

Some settings bring a state rule of their own. Under Pennsylvania's Older Adults Protective Services Act, a student doing a clinical rotation counts as an employee in long-term care nursing facilities, home health agencies, personal care homes and adult day centers. Those facilities need a Pennsylvania State Police report obtained within one year, plus an FBI report if you haven't lived in Pennsylvania for the previous two years.

Plan a fresh round before each clinical year, and line it up with the due dates your compliance coordinator sends rather than whenever it happens to suit you.

If you live in Pennsylvania, or your CastleBranch instructions point you to the Commonwealth's systems, these are the state services behind each check:

1. PA State Police criminal record check (PATCH)Requested online at epatch.pa.gov, where online requests often return a result immediately.
2. PA Child Abuse History ClearanceRequested through the Department of Human Services Child Welfare Information Solution portal (compass.dhs.pa.gov/cwis). Results are mailed within 14 days. Drexel's FAQ notes the volunteer version can be used once every 57 months; inside that window, your application must include payment.
3. FBI fingerprints through DHSPennsylvania prints applicants at IDEMIA's IdentoGO centers after pre-registration. DHS lists service code 1KG6ZJ for volunteers and 1KG756 for employees with contact with children, while the Department of Education issues its own codes. Mailed results take 7 to 10 business days, and DHS has announced new fingerprint fees from October 1, 2026.
4. If your prints are rejectedIdentoGO's FAQ says two rejected sets lead to a name-based check that takes four to six weeks, which is the strongest reason to book early.

Drexel's public pages don't say which service code a Drexel student should use. Follow the instructions in your CastleBranch profile, and if a clinical site asks for its own DHS fingerprint check, ask the site which code it wants.

Drexel's compliance page calls the third check a State Child Abuse Clearance, and its FAQ talks about the Pennsylvania clearance in particular. If you live and train in another state, your CastleBranch instructions are the place to see which state's clearance Drexel wants; if they're unclear, email dhcompliance@drexel.edu and get an answer before applying anywhere.

For fingerprints, applicants outside Pennsylvania can use IdentoGO's FD-258 card-scan process through uenroll.identogo.com, following instructions updated in March 2026. Your clinical site may also want its home state's registry searches: Bayhealth in Delaware, for instance, asks students for a child abuse and adult abuse registry check. For neighboring states, see our New Jersey and Delaware guides. Where two states are involved, keep each result labeled by state and date so the right one goes to the right reviewer.

Health systems write these checks into their own onboarding, sometimes with a different route. CHOP asks graduate students for a current criminal background check, child abuse clearance and FBI fingerprinting. Lehigh Valley Health Network wants the child abuse clearance plus a DHS FBI check through IdentoGO, suggests starting fingerprints six to eight weeks ahead, and states that students pay for their own clearances. St. Luke's asks for FBI fingerprinting through the Department of Human Services.

Across the river, Virtua's student affiliation policy says criminal checks cover the past seven years. When a site's route differs from CastleBranch, you may need a second set of results in the site's own format, so ask for its list as soon as it accepts you. Each system's process is on Philadelphia clinical sites.

Three things stretch the calendar: fingerprint results that travel by mail, a child abuse clearance that can take two weeks to arrive, and the four-to-six-week fallback if prints are rejected twice. Starting the background package as soon as your coordinator's list arrives, which for most NP students is around NUPR 520, keeps these off the critical path to your first clinical course.

Because the checks repeat yearly, the same logic holds every year after. Note the month you finished each one, and begin the next round early enough that the mail and any retakes land before your compliance due date. For the full sequence from admission onward, see the Drexel clinical timeline.

Background checks clear you to train; a placement gives you somewhere to train. We find your preceptor and clinical site, then tell you early what that site wants beyond Drexel's list, whether it's a DHS fingerprint route, a registry search or its own onboarding portal, so the last weeks before the term hold no surprises.

Every Drexel placement passes through the college's contracting and compliance teams, and they make the decision. What reaches them from us is complete: the preceptor's credentials, the site's agreement contact and its onboarding steps. Should a preceptor withdraw after you're cleared, we're on call to find another who fits your course. Send us your track and term to get started.