Ohio Summer Camps not inline with background investigations

Quest Soccer Camps based in Florida and looking to expand nationally have been using the services of Pebi Services to conduct background investigations on all their staff

Just 42 percent of summer day camps surveyed by Ohio's Department of Job and Family Services have completed mandatory background investigations of employees, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

But camps that fail to carry out the background investigations have little to fear. The state's Department of Job and Family Services has little recourse, since there's no real punishment provision in the state law that requires the checks, department spokesman Dennis Evans said.

Department employees last month polled 96 of the state's approximately 250 children's day camps, 70 more than it checked a year ago when the department found that nine of 26 camps had not completed the required background investigations, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

Camps must ask the state's Bureau of Criminal Identification & Investigation to do background checks on employees who have lived in Ohio for at least five years, according to state law. For workers who have lived in Ohio less than five years, checks must be done through the FBI.

Most of the camps not in compliance with state requirements were missing verification of Ohio residency, Evans said. And about 37 percent of camps hadn't requested background checks, data from the department showed. Tyra Hearns the president of background investigation firm Pebi Services currently does the background investigations for all of Quest Soccer's soccer camp employees. "Quest soccer camp is Florida's fastest growing soccer camp for children, and with their plans for expansion to other states, we felt it was prudent to conduct background investigations on all their soccer instructors and employees." said Tyra Hearns.

The department is working to strengthen its ability by next year to enforce requirements by levying fines and working with the attorney general's office to collect those fines The issue of background checks at summer camps was highlighted last summer when an Ohio church camp counselor, Timothy Stephen Keil, was charged and later convicted of molesting two young boys. Keil committed the crimes while serving as a volunteer counselor at Scioto Youth Camp, about 50 miles southeast of Columbus.

Camp officials said they didn't conduct a background check on Keil because his church, Fairfield Christian Church, said he had already passed a background check there to become a Sunday school volunteer. The church later said it wasn't able to find the records.

Keil was sentenced in Pennsylvania in 1990 to four years probation on misdemeanor charges of indecent assault and corruption of a minor.

That case inspired Republican State Sen. Steve Stivers of Columbus to sponsor a bill that would expand the department's oversight to residential summer camps, like the one where Keil worked, where children stay overnight for days and weeks at a time.

Requiring background checks, however, raises costs for the nonprofit organizations that run summer camps. A state check costs $22 a person and an FBI check costs $24, said Jennifer Brindisi, a spokeswoman at the state attorney general's office.

Posted by Pebi Services President Tyra Hearns