Five dollars and a few minutes could keep a sex offender away from your child.  But still, experts say most non-profits don't screen volunteers.

    
A national background check company says over the past year and a half they found sixteen registered sex offenders applying for volunteer positions in the Carolinas.   As your kids head off to summer camp, vacation bible school, or swimming lessons do you really know who's watching them?

At the Boys and Girls Club kids can be silly.  But President Greg Tolbert handles the serious stuff like keeping students safe.  "I definitely think it's something a lot of parents don't think about," he says. Workers and volunteers undergo background checks.  "We've uncovered some things," he says.  Tolbert says that simple check has kept people with a history of drugs and violence away from children.  But experts say it's a step many organizations aren't taking.  "Most non-profits are not doing this yet," says Len Pagano, head of The Safe America Foundation, a group committed to keeping sex offenders away from kids.  "You need to make sure first that that volunteer is as good as they appear to be and the only way to know that for sure is to do a background check," says Pagano.

One business doing that is ChoicePoint.  They screen thousands of people for companies across the country.  ChoicePoint says the background check costs about $5 and takes a few minutes.  Just five years ago they screened fewer than a thousand non-profit volunteers.  Now they run background checks on more than 20,000.  "Oh it makes me sick," says Fiona McCaul with ChoicePoint.  She calls what they've uncovered gut wrenching.  "We found many sex offenders and convicted criminals are regularly applying for jobs with these non-profits," she says.

ChoicePoint says some of the most common criminal offenses they uncover are DUI's, drug possession and sex crimes, including rape. Every 43 hours a convicted sex offender applies to volunteer at a non-profit, according to ChoicePoint.  Churches are a common target.  "Children are innocence in its purest form and we want to protect that innocence," says Pastor David Blanton.  Blanton says last year his church started screening everyone working with children.  "I said you have all the right to not give me permission to run a background check," says Blanton.  "But I have all the right not to let you work with children."  Blanton says background checks offer parents peace of mind.  "We have to be as Jesus said as wise as serpents but as harmless as doves," he says.  "We have to use our wisdom."  So as your children head off to camp, swimming lessons or vacation Bible school safety experts ask: do you know who's watching them?  "People just assume that no one will harm their child," says Pagano, "and that's unfortunately just not true."

There are no laws that restrict sex offenders from working with kids, once they have served their sentence.  According to the attorney generals office it is the employer’s responsibility to make sure they know who they are hiring, especially if the job involves working with children.

Safe America hopes over the next three to five years background checks become a habit for all non-profits.

 
So how do you know if the places you take your kids screen volunteers?  Safe America just launched the "we screen" campaign. They are giving signs to non-profits that do background checks.  Also, if you're not sure just ask.

And if you want to volunteer with children e prepared to undergo a background check.  We found some organizations require volunteers to pay for their own checks.