Volunteer parents going on school camps are now required to be screened by a police check. Bronwyn Macey, who supports the idea, with her daughter Paige, 8. "I'm not aware of anyone who has complained about having a police check," Macey says.

Schools are demanding parents be police-vetted before they can volunteer for school camps or sports coaching.

It comes as rules for those working around children are ramped up on July 1, meaning all school support staff will need to be police checked.

Mum and dad volunteers are exempt from the new rules, but the Ministry of Education has advised schools to screen camp volunteers for criminal records.

​Some welcome the move as making children safer; others fear the time-consuming tangle of red tape will discourage parents from volunteering.

READ MORE:

* Jonathan Milne: No excuse will ever be good enough if a child is abused at school

* Call to vet school camp aides after girls sexually assaulted

* School system failed to protect children, ministry says

* Tardy police vetting of school staff criticised

One mum has confessed she made a stupid decision six years ago – but it's come back to haunt her because she is now prevented from helping out at her son's school camps.

The Taranaki woman has a conviction for a serious crime committed when she was 20 years old.

The assault charge was something she thought she had long since put behind her. But her child's school commissioned police vetting before the annual camp.

It's a check becoming more common when working around children.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her young son, said as a parent she supported police checks for people around children, but she believed people can make amends.

"Why should I keep getting punished for something I did six years ago?".

She didn't realise it would be a problem until she saw a note in her son's school newsletter that stated anyone wishing to volunteer for the school's camp needed to go through a police check.

"That's something that I always wanted to help out with."

She hadn't bothered applying for the police check, because she knew what the outcome would be. "It's just the disappointment that I don't want to face."

Another parent, Holly Black, said while she didn't have a problem with the police checks, she was worried that members of her family who had picked up drink driving convictions over five years ago wouldn't be able to help out on school trips. "That's just not fair."

The number of schools using police checks to make sure their children are safe around volunteers is growing, as legislation puts more emphasis on protecting children.

Police carried out 520,000 checks in 2015, up by 100,000 since 2012. Now they have begun checking volunteer parents too.

In 2014 the Vulnerable Children Act came into force, which required all school staff go though a police check every three years.

Those rules get tougher on July 1 when all non-teaching support staff must also be police checked.

Parents fall outside those rules but a number of school boards have made the checks mandatory.

The Ministry of Education said it encouraged schools to get checks done.

It was also up to the school to decide how bad a conviction needed to be before they were banned from school activities.

New Zealand Principals Federation executive Karen Brisco said it was simply a matter of getting reassurance for other parents, and the school. "If they're staying overnight we've been advised they need to have a police check," she said.

Brisco is the principal of Omata School, and said the board required a police check on everyone at the school, including tradesmen.

A number of other schools, such as Lepperton School and New Plymouth Boys' High School, are introducing mandatory checks as well.

Bronwyn Macey's daughter goes to Lepperton: she said anything that made the children safer was a good thing. "They've been on camp and I'm not aware of anyone who has complained about having a police check."

New Plymouth Boys' High School headmaster Paul Veric said principals were still discussing how the Vulnerable Children's Act affected them and were working on a collaborative approach.

New Zealand School Trustees Association president Lorraine Kerr said it was up to individual boards to decide whether to run criminal checks on parents. "Only they know their parents' community. We just make sure they have policies in place and what the Vulnerable Children Act means to them."

Schools were having to discuss how the new rules could affect contractors working at a school building site. "There are going to be cost implications but we have to look at the costs versus the assurances."

NEW ZEALAND AND OVERSEAS

* In January, the move by South Australian officials to scrap a requirement for parents to pass police screening checks was welcomed as common sense.

* The number of criminal checks on volunteers in the United Kingdom has soared in four years, even after the Government promised to scale back checks to common sense levels.

* There have been no high-profile reports of parents committing criminal acts at school camps in New Zealand, but workers have been convicted in the past.

* Eight schoolgirls were sexually assaulted in 2011 by convicted rapist Mathew Everson while he worked at an Eastern Bay of Plenty school camp.