He allegedly injected the girl with drugs and assaulted her in the back of a Big Brothers Big Sisters van.

Officials with the Big Brothers Big Sisters headquarters in Philadelphia could not be reached yesterday to comment on whether there are hiring standards on the national level.

Deidre Tegarden, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Maui, which is separate from the Honolulu agency, said it is national policy for volunteers to undergo screening, but she was not sure whether criminal background checks were required of employees. However, the Maui agency does it for both "because it's the right thing to do when you're dealing with children."

All of her 12 employees and approximately 400 volunteers undergo thorough background checks, Tegarden said. The Maui agency hires a company to conduct the checks based on names and Social Security numbers.

"It's well worth the money. It's for the safety of our children," she said.

Tegarden said the agency is "constantly updating" its staff and volunteer files and conducts spot checks of its operations to make sure nothing is amiss. "We want everyone to know that when they come through our agency, they are guaranteed a safe time," she said.

The sexual-assault suspect, Myklebust, had been working for Big Brothers Big Sisters in Honolulu since Sept. 1. He is charged with 15 counts, including kidnapping, sexual assault, robbery and credit-card theft for allegedly abducting a 17-year-old girl from a downtown Honolulu street corner last Saturday.

Big Brothers Big Sisters is not subject to state regulations that affect childcare providers. The regulations require employees of licensed childcare providers to undergo criminal background checks if they will have contact with children.

Officials with some nonprofit groups have complained that it is difficult to screen childcare workers who do not fall under the state regulations. These would include employees of specialty camps and recreational programs that are exempt from the rules.

The state Department of Human Services conducts criminal history checks on employees required to undergo screening, using Hawai'i and FBI databases, information that is not available to nongovernmental groups. Otherwise limited checks can be done, but even then, the search may not be complete if the worker has provided an alias or other false information.

The Hawai'i Criminal Justice Data Center, under the Department of the Attorney General, will conduct name and fingerprint checks for the public, but the results will show Hawai'i convictions only, not those from other states and not arrests. The FBI will conduct fingerprint-based checks for people who request it for themselves, but will not accept requests seeking information on other people.

The state's sex-offender registry, which has information on Hawai'i residents convicted here and in other states, has only recently been reopened to the public after a 2001 state Supreme Court ruling cut off access. Prosecutors are in the process of reconstituting a sex-offender list that satisfies court concerns. As of yesterday, 13 names were on the registry, which is accessible via the Web at eHawaii.gov.

Hawai'i's two largest childcare providers, the YMCA of Honolulu and Kama'aina Kids, are exempt from state regulations governing childcare operations, but officials with both agencies said that as a matter of policy they conduct criminal history and fingerprint checks of staff who are likely to come into contact with children, including janitors, cooks and drivers.

Kama'aina Kids president Ray Sanborn said drivers also must submit to pre-employment drug testing, largely a requirement of the workers' compensation insurance carrier for the agency.

There are about a dozen Boys & Girls Clubs of America sites on O'ahu, Maui and the Big Island, and several more on military bases. The clubs are independently operated and their individual boards establish hiring policies. The national organization recommends criminal background checks of anyone working or volunteering at a club site when children are present, said David Sykes, senior regional service director for the Pacific region.

Sykes said a new policy that takes effect Jan. 1 will require member clubs to conduct the background checks.