Lawmakers and the media have been told repeatedly since 1998 that the files could not be opened because this was a Family Court case and several minors were involved. But Human Services Director Lillian Koller recently said a change in the department's administrative rules would allow for their release.

Koller did not know how many documents would be made public. There are hundreds of pages involved in the case, and she said the department would likely post them on its Web site.

Nothing will be released, however, before the state attorney general's office completes a review of the case. Koller's department is consulting with the attorney general's office about which records on Peter "Peter Boy" Kema Jr. are covered by a 1999 state Supreme Court ruling that blocked the public release of his 577-page Family Court file to protect the privacy of his siblings.

"I am trying to get the maximum that I can make available that are not restricted by a lawful binding order," Koller said.

The attorney general's office would not comment on its review.

Peter Boy's story doesn't sit well with authorities. The child's parents — Peter Kema Sr. and Jaylin Kema of Hilo — told police in January 1998 that he was given to a family friend months earlier. Peter Kema Sr. explained that he had taken the boy on a job-hunting trip to O'ahu in August 1997 but gave him to a woman named Auntie Rose Makuakane because he was running out of money for food and the pair was living in a tent in 'A'ala Park.

Makuakane was described as a lauhala weaver from the Halawa area and a cousin to Peter Kema Sr.'s stepfather. Police have never confirmed that she exists.

The files could open the department to criticism.

Human Services officials and Big Island police have long been at odds over their response to the case. Social workers have said they told police the boy had a broken arm and was missing in June 1997. Police, however, insist that they did not know he had vanished until January 1998.

Koller said a public review of the files could lead to improvements on how the agency handles similar cases, including improved detection of cases and response time.

"If something wrong occurred to him, we need to assist in any way we can," Koller said. "I hope these records will do that."

The review is possible only because of a significant change in the way the department handles confidentiality. In December, the department added a confidentiality chapter to its administrative rules that defines when it can open a case for public review, Koller said. Previously, only a Family Court judge could make that decision.

Koller started working on the chapter soon after taking the job in 2003. She said 11 other states have adopted similar policies.

"By adopting these new confidentiality rules, we can exercise independent authority to carve out exceptions to confidentiality when we believe it is in the state's best interests to do so," Koller said. "I think we made a huge step forward."

State Rep. Dennis Arakaki, D-30th (Moanalua, Kalihi Valley, 'Alewa), has requested the files every year since 1998. The state's insistence on confidentiality was misplaced, he said.

"When a child goes missing, that is the most important thing, over and above confidentiality," Arakaki said. "If information was shared sooner, people could have done something."

Arakaki doesn't know what to expect from the files or what they will lead to, if anything at all.

"We are going to try and figure out what needs to be done," Arakaki said. "Sadly, it is too late for Peter Boy. But one of the main reasons we are doing it is so that it won't happen again."

There was keen public interest in Peter Boy's case for more than a year after it first surfaced. At one point, in the summer of 1999, the governor's wife even helped state missing-child advocates hand out bumper stickers that read, "So where's Peter?"

Anne Clarkin, the former coordinator for Missing Child Center-Hawai'i, put one of them on her own car and then watched it fade and curl at the edges as years passed without the case being solved.

She welcomed the state's new stance on the Peter Boy files, but knows there is nothing in them that can help the child. There are other issues that need to be addressed.

"Nobody knows what happened, but even if he is dead, it doesn't mean his case is over," Clarkin said. "There is no way a child should be hurt or disappear in Hawai'i and that be acceptable."