"We do it for A-Plus, and we do it everywhere else. We would do it whether it was required or not, given this day and age," said Don Anderson, president and CEO of the YMCA of Honolulu, which has nine branches on O'ahu.

The YMCA and Kama'aina Kids both run A-Plus after-school programs for the state Department of Education serving a total of about 11,000 children statewide. Since the A-Plus program involves state and federal childcare subsidies, criminal history and fingerprint checks are required.

Both groups also run summer fun programs, specialty camps and other youth activities that are not regulated. Anderson said the YMCA of Honolulu serves between 4,000 and 5,000 children in its summer programs. The number is about 1,500 for Kama'aina Kids, said president Ray Sanborn.

Officials at some smaller camps said criminal background checks are not necessary for their programs.

For example, Diamond Head Theatre runs an eight-week summer "Musical Theatre Experience" for children age 7 to 16. As a specialty camp, the theater program is exempt from state licensing. Eighty children are attending half-day sessions this summer.

Education manager Kelly Moulson said instructors have a long association with the theater group's programs and productions. "The performing arts community is so small, we don't have any instructors in this program who the artistic director does not know personally," she said.

Dustin Tester, who runs the Maui Surfer Girls camp, said she devised her own standards that include an all-female staff, lifeguard-certified surf instructors, and first-aid and CPR training. The program's 13 staff members, including a nurse, all worked at the camp previously, and Tester said she conducts reference checks on new employees she does not know personally.

Maui Surfer Girls operates from the Episcopal Church's Camp Pecusa on the West Maui shore, and this summer 55 girls are attending various sessions.

Tester said additional state regulation of small camps like hers would be a burden, "but I would do whatever it takes to reassure parents I run a safe, professional operation."

Sanborn at Kama'aina Kids said there are other situations in which state licensing might not be practical, such as a sports camp featuring a famous athlete.

"If Tiger Woods came in to do a golf camp, I don't think he would be fingerprinted, but maybe the staff should be," he said.

Kama'aina Kids runs its own surf camp, Surf Quest, at Malaekahana, enrolling 45 children this summer. Surf Quest is accredited by the American Camping Association, and although as a specialty camp it is exempt from state rules, Sanborn said criminal background checks are done on staff members.

Two other surf camps at Malaekahana are not accredited or regulated, said Sanborn, who handles accreditation issues as a Hawai'i representative of the American Camping Association.

Susanne Pearce, president of the Children's Alliance of Hawai'i, said it may be time to review state rules on childcare programs. "If these regulations haven't been evaluated in several years, I think it would be important, based on the current environment. That's only reasonable," Pearce said.

"Based on what we're seeing out there, things are changing. The things our kids are having to deal with are different than when we were kids. We always have to look at the rules and regulations," she said, while balancing the ability of programs to function in the face of increased regulation.

The YMCA's Anderson said additional regulation would be "very cumbersome" and not necessarily effective. He said regulations are not a substitute for "trust and track record."

"I think parents have the responsibility to know who they are dealing with," he said. "Do I trust who I am leaving my children with? More laws probably can't create that."

Officials who run programs for children in Hawai'i point out the difficulty they experience in trying to get criminal history information.

Hawai'i does not allow public access to the sexual offender registry, information that is available in other states. The Hawai'i Supreme Court in 2001 ruled unconstitutional the state's version of "Megan's Law" because it did not provide for hearings to determine whether an offender remains a danger to society.

The Hawai'i Criminal Justice Data Center, under the Department of the Attorney General, conducts name and fingerprint checks for the public, but the results will only show convictions in Hawai'i. Name-based checks are available for free if individuals requesting the information go to the center's South King Street office to look it up themselves. A printout of the information costs $10. Otherwise the information can be obtained via mail for $15.

A fingerprint check costs $25. Fingerprinting can be done by the data center for an additional $15.

The FBI conducts criminal history and fingerprint checks for individuals who request it for themselves, at a cost of $18, but you cannot request a check of anyone else.

Childcare programs pay the state $24 per request for workers in programs where criminal history checks are required. The state runs the information through FBI and Hawai'i databases, and also checks for child abuse or neglect reports.

Anderson said the YMCA of Honolulu pays a private company $85 per request to do background checks on workers who are not covered by state rules. The agency has 107 full-time employees and hundreds more who come and go throughout the year depending on seasonal demand.

Anderson said criminal history and fingerprint checks "are not a foolproof situation." Most of the leaders in YMCA programs for children are young, college-age adults who are not likely to show up in criminal records, he said.

"If they have criminal tendencies, we'd be maybe the first ones to find out about it," he said.

At Kama'aina Kids, Sanborn said anyone who works with children undergoes a background check, but "there are always guys who fall through the cracks."

"It's a pretty effective process, but one of the problems in summer camp is you do the fingerprinting and you don't get the results for four weeks and the program's already done," he said.

In the aftermath of the Aloha Adventure Camps episode, Sanborn said his agency held a management meeting to review its policies. "Everybody needs to be double-checked," he said, but it's difficult when dealing with seasonal hires versus year-round staff.

The case of Raymond L. Thomas and Aloha Adventure Camps is an example of how difficult it can be to get reliable information. Thomas used an alias, and submitted false information to the American Camping Association and the Girl Scouts.

He was required to register as a sex offender in Hawai'i, but the registry is not public. Because his crimes took place in California, there would be no record of his convictions at the Hawai'i Criminal Justice Data Center, and Thomas would have come up clean in a criminal history check that did not include the FBI database.

In fact, his Aloha Adventure Camps operated successfully for several years without incident and had lots of repeat business, Sanborn said. It was even accredited by the American Camping Association, which many Mainland parents said was a key factor in sending their children to the Maui camp sight-unseen.

"The things parents really need to look for is how legitimate the organization is, if it's well-established like the YMCA and us," said Sanborn, whose agency has been in existence for 17 years.

Anderson agrees. "The big point is that when parents entrust their children to an individual or organization, they really need to know who those people are and what their track record is, and to never be afraid to ask questions about their policies," he said.

Voters in Hawai'i will have a chance in the fall election to consider whether public access to the sex offender registry should be restored. A proposed constitutional amendment would allow lawmakers to decide what kinds of sex offenders would be immediately put on the public registry and whether some should receive a hearing beforehand. The amendment also would allow offenders to petition to be removed from the list.