COLUMBIA, S.C. - Child advocates want the state to make its list of suspected child abusers open to the public.

The state Department of Social Services maintains a list of about 37,600 names of people who judges or social services investigators say probably abused or neglected a child, but most parents can't use it to check out their neighbors, coaches or teachers.

Individuals on the Central Registry for Child Abuse and Neglect have not necessarily been convicted of a crime, making it difficult to grant public access to the list, said Denyse Williams, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina.

"It would be subject to constitutional challenges," Williams said. "You would be putting some people who have not been convicted in a position to be deprived of certain opportunities without due process."

Paula Owens, an Upstate child advocate, said that means many admitted child abusers can keep their secret to themselves. "They can't do this," she said. "They can't hide these people."

Tricia Reese, a Columbia parent who said her daughter was neglected in a day-care center, wants better access to the list.

"The fact that it's not public record just really bothered me because people have a right to know," Reese said.

Created by state statute in 1981, the registry began as a database of child abuse cases.

Through a series of amendments to the law, it gradually became a list of perpetrators in substantiated abuse cases, said Virginia Williamson, general counsel for Social Services.

Until amendments in 1997, individual Social Services caseworkers were authorized to place individuals on the list. Now, only Family Court judges or Circuit Court judges can place people on the list and are required to do so in serious cases of substantiated abuse and neglect.

Someone is placed on the list once an allegation is "founded" or "indicated."

Licensed day-care centers are required by the state to use the registry to screen applicants before determining whether they should be allowed to work with children.

Prospective foster parents must be screened against the registry, and some school districts refer to it when hiring teachers and support staff.

In all, the agency receives about 5,000 requests each month to check a person's name against the registry, said Mary Williams, director of the division of human services at the department.

Any person can check a name against the registry, but only with the written consent of the person they are checking.

State Rep. John Graham Altman, R-Charleston, who chairs the General Laws subcommittee of the House Judiciary committee, said he does not foresee any changes in the near future in the way the registry is set up.

Altman, an attorney who has represented defendants in criminal sexual abuse cases, said he would advocate for the list to be public if he felt confident that everyone on the list deserved to be there.

South Carolina is not the only state with a child abuse registry.

The National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information says 42 states log child abuse complaints in a central registry. No states make their lists public, according to the clearinghouse.

But Howard A. Davidson, director of the American Bar Association's Center on Children and the Law, said South Carolina's process is different from most other states because accused offenders elsewhere can make their case before a judge or appeal being placed on the list.

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Information from: The State, http://www.thestate.com/