Background checks are just the start of oversight.

Byline: SUSAN PALMER The Register-Guard

AT LEAST TWO state agencies don't rely on criminal background checks alone to keep kids safe.

The Teacher Standards and Practices Commission and the Oregon Board of Licenced Professional Counselors and Therapists have access to national databases that list teachers and therapists who have lost their licenses in other states.

The national teacher database has been in place since 1984 - an extra layer of scrutiny essential in a job where adults so closely interact with students, said Roy Einreinhofer, executive director of the organization that maintains the database.

"The way we feel about it is that one teacher molesting children can upset the lives of hundreds of kids, and that's one too many," Einreinhofer said.

Of the nation's 2.5 million teachers, about 16,000 - less than 1 percent - have lost their licences and are listed in the database, he said. Teachers and therapists can lose their licenses not only for criminal convictions, but also when they fail to meet the professional standards set by the state.

An inappropriate relationship with a student, for example, could cost a teacher his or her license even if there were no criminal charges filed.

Looking Glass Youth & Family Services counselor Bill Wolf was fired from his job and stripped of his license after his arrest on charges that he traded in Internet child pornography. His trial is pending.

The online databases for both professions make it easier to track teachers and therapists who move from state to state.

But nonprofit agencies have no such luxury. There's no licencing process for volunteers. And once a background check is done, it's history, Oregon State Police Lt. Cliff Daimler said.

Police who do the checks are barred by privacy laws from retaining the fingerprints or the criminal history in a file, not just for nonprofit groups, but for state agencies as well.

But background checks and license databases are only the first line of defense. Most groups have policies in place that govern how employees work with children that are keyed to ongoing vigilance.

The Boy Scouts, for example, require two leaders at all Scouting events and prohibit one-on-one contact between Scouts and leaders. On overnight activities, separate accommodations are required for leaders and youths who aren't related. Leaders and Scouts must respect each other's privacy and refrain from dressing and undressing together during outings, according to a Scouting leaders guide.

Kidsports also has a handbook for its volunteer coaches that discourages them from driving individual children to and from practices or games, and forbids coaches from accompanying lone children to restrooms or allowing a child to go alone to a restroom. Children must go in groups, program director Dave Clark said.

Champions, a before- and after-school child-care program, doesn't allow trainees and new employees to be alone with children until their background checks have cleared and until they've had a year of experience, program administrator Lolita Tymas said. The program - which operates in four area schools - also does monthly unannounced inspections and encourages parents to drop by often.

At Looking Glass, where counselors often work closely with young clients, counselor guidelines prohibit staff members from developing personal relationships with current or former clients.

One-on-one activities between youths and staff members are planned by a treatment team and would include such things as on-site recreation, local transportation, medical or dental emergencies, shopping for clothes and apartment hunting. Such activities are logged and supervisors regularly review program logs.

That kind of oversight is paramount in keeping kids safe, said Keith Kaufman, a Portland State University psychologist who has studied child molesters.

"You have to have an active program of monitoring," Kaufman said, "so that if you have a rule around two adults with kids, who is checking to make sure that's really happening?"