How Safe Academy 360 works
The 360 is coverage around the whole operation, not a checklist an owner completes once. Two directions are stated here in full, including what each one does not do. It applies to any martial arts academy: jiu jitsu, judo, wrestling, MMA, karate, taekwondo.
Certification of the academy and its coaches
What it covers
The people who teach, and the standards they teach under. Every coach at a certified academy has been screened against public records and is screened again each month, has completed SafeSport, mandated reporter, and CPR and first aid training, has signed the academy's code of conduct, and has each certificate on file. The academy has adopted its own written standards and is listed publicly so a parent can check.
For a parent, the point is peace of mind grounded in something specific. For an owner, the point is documented good faith leadership: if the question "what were you doing about it" ever comes, the answer already exists in writing.
What the academy does
- Names every coach who teaches, including assistants and anyone who leads a kids program.
- Confirms each coach's legal name and date of birth against their ID, tells the coach the screen runs, and confirms that in writing when adding them.
- Adopts the code of conduct, keeps it where students and parents can read it, and has every coach sign it.
- Makes sure each coach completes the trainings with the providers and uploads each certificate.
- Renews each credential before it expires. The platform shows the dates ahead of time.
What Safe Academy 360 does
- Screens each coach by legal name and date of birth against the public sex offender registries of all 58 US jurisdictions and state prison records, the moment they are added, and again every month. A returned record is compared with the person by Safe Academy 360 reviewers before anything is decided, and a coach whose record is confirmed does not complete the credential.
- Receives each uploaded certificate, reviews the document, and records it against the coach with its own expiry date.
- Tracks every credential to its own expiry, and shows a coach as lapsed when any one of them expires.
- Emails each coach their own certificate when all five items are complete, and reissues it as credentials renew.
- Issues the academy's certificate number, lists the academy in the directory, and answers a certificate lookup on verify.
- Acts as an independent third party. The academy does not certify itself, and Safe Academy 360 is not owned by any academy, affiliation, or sanctioning body.
What it does not do
It does not verify a certificate with the body that issued it. An uploaded certificate is a document that was reviewed and kept on file. Read it that way.
It does not guarantee anyone's conduct. Screening and training reduce risk. They do not make a person safe, and no screening catches everyone.
It does not search county court or federal records. The screen covers public sex offender registries and state prison records, and it is described that way wherever it appears.
It does not license anyone, and it is not a government program. Certification is a private program's statement that its requirements were met as of a date.
It does not publish anything about an individual coach's screening. Public surfaces show academy status and credential counts only.
Screening at registration
What it covers
Who walks in the door. When someone registers with the academy, the adult account holder is checked by legal name and date of birth against the public sex offender registries of all 58 US jurisdictions and state prison records, the moment the registration lands, and again every month. Almost no academy addresses this today, and it is the exposure a coach credential cannot reach: adult students share the mat and the changing room with children.
What the academy does
- Uses the registration flow that carries the screening. Screening is disclosed in the registration agreement the applicant accepts.
- Names an alert contact, usually the owner, who is emailed when a screen returns a record.
- Runs the quick screen for anyone it registers on another platform: legal name and date of birth, typed in, same sources, same monthly repeat.
- Follows up on a returned record once Safe Academy 360 reviewers have compared it with the person. A match is a candidate for review, not a verdict.
- Decides what to do. Safe Academy 360 does not make that decision for the academy.
What Safe Academy 360 does
- Runs the screen the moment the registration lands, so nobody chases paperwork, and runs it again each month for everyone screened.
- Shows the academy how many of the 58 registries answered, and runs the screen again when some did not.
- Emails the alert contact and shows an open alert when a record returns. Reviewers compare the registry photo and date of birth with the person, open the registry page to confirm the listing is current, and call the owner, usually within two business days.
- Shows a returned record with the basis for the match, the registry it came from, when that registry was last checked, and a link to the public listing, so a person can look at the source before doing anything.
What it does not do
It does not prove anyone has no record. An absence of matches means the registries that answered returned no matching records for the name searched. Registry data is incomplete, matching is name based, county court and federal records are not searched, and when a source does not answer, the search is silent on it. That is stated to the academy each time, not summarized away.
It does not compile a report about a person. It surfaces links to public information for the academy's own review.
It does not decide who may join. That is the academy's decision, made by a person, after looking at the record.
It does not catch everyone. Common names produce false matches, and a person who is not in a registry is simply absent from it.
The full description of screening, including what the applicant agrees to and what happens on a possible match, is on the screening page.
The record
Both directions leave a record: who was screened and when, which trainings were completed and when they expire, which standards the academy adopted, and which registrations were checked. The record is what turns "we take safety seriously" into something an owner can show. Every screen is run again each month, so the record stays current instead of aging from the day of signup.
Certification in detail, what it costs, or enroll your academy.