BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1707
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Date of Hearing: March 27, 2012
Counsel: Sandy Uribe
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Tom Ammiano, Chair
AB 1707 (Ammiano) - As Amended: March 13, 2012
SUMMARY : Removes non-reoffending minors from the Child Abuse
Central Index (CACI) after 10 years, and amends the CACI notice
provisions. Specifically, this bill :
1)Provides that, on or after January 1, 2013, if a person is
listed in the CACI as a perpetrator of abuse due to an
incident that occurred when the person was under 18 years old,
the listing shall be deleted from the CACI 10 years after the
incident, if no other incidents have occurred.
2)Requires reporting agencies to provide notice of the CACI
report to the attorney of a known or suspected abuser, if any,
when the subject is a minor or nonminor dependent of the
juvenile court (a foster child).
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires that any specified mandated reporter who has
knowledge of or observes a child, in his or her professional
capacity or within the scope of his or her employment whom the
reporter knows, or reasonably suspects, has been the victim of
child abuse, shall report it immediately to a specified child
protection agency. ĘPenal Code Section 11166(a).]
2)Requires specified local agencies to send the California
Department of Justice (DOJ) reports of every case of child
abuse or severe neglect that they investigate and determine to
be substantiated. ĘPenal Code Section 11169(a).]
3)Directs the DOJ to maintain an index, referred to as the CACI,
of all substantiated reports of child abuse and neglect
submitted as specified. ĘPenal Code Section 11170(a)(1) and
(a)(3).]
4)Allows DOJ to disclose information contained in the CACI to
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multiple identified parties for purposes of child abuse
investigation, licensing, and employment applications for
positions that have interaction with children. ĘPenal Code
Section 11170(b).]
5)Requires reporting agencies to provide written notification to
a person reported to the CACI. ĘPenal Code Section 11169(c).]
6)Provide that, except in those cases where a court has
determined that suspected child abuse or neglect has occurred
or a case is currently pending before the court, any person
listed in the CACI has the right to hearing which comports
with due process before the agency that requested the person's
CACI inclusion. ĘPenal Code Section 11169(d) and (e).]
7)Requires a reporting agency to notify the DOJ when a due
process hearing results in a finding that a CACI listing was
based on an unsubstantiated report. ĘPenal Code Section
11169(g).]
8)Requires the DOJ to remove a person's name from the CACI when
it is notified that the due process hearing resulted in a
finding that the listing was based on an unsubstantiated
report. ĘPenal Code Section 11169(g).]
9)Provides that any person listed in CACI who has reached age
100 is to be removed from CACI. ĘPenal Code Section
11169(f).]
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)Author's Statement : According to the author, "Children can be
listed on CACI as perpetrators of physical abuse if they
injure another child in circumstances other than a mutual
fight or an accident. Children can also be listed on CACI as
perpetrators of sexual abuse due to any reported sexual
behavior between the child and another child, even if the
behavior is consensual. Children in the foster-care system
are especially vulnerable to being listed on CACI because they
may act out due to past abuse and because their behavior is
subject to closer scrutiny by child welfare agency case
workers than that of children in the general population.
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"AB 1707 provides an avenue for the removal of single-offense
minors from the CACI. Specifically if a person is listed in
the CACI as a perpetrator of abuse due to an incident that
occurred when the person was under 18 years old, the listing
shall be removed from the CACI 10 years after the incident, if
no other incidents have occurred. By removing non-reoffending
minors, AB 1707 would protect youth from suffering life-long
restrictions on job opportunities and licensing eligibility
due to misbehavior that occurred when they were under 18.
"AB 1707 will also improve the use and operation of CACI by
providing important clean up. Listing conduct of
non-reoffending minors can make CACI less effective because it
loads CACI with questionable data and wastes the time of
subsequent investigators that rely on in conducting
investigations and background checks."
2)Background : CACI was created in 1965 as a centralized system
for collecting reports of suspected child abuse. This is not
an index of persons who necessarily have been convicted of any
crime; it is an index of persons against whom reports of child
abuse or neglect have been made, investigated, and determined
by the reporting agency (local welfare departments and law
enforcement) to meet the requirements for inclusion, according
to standards that have changed over the years.
Access to CACI initially was limited to official
investigations of open child abuse cases, but in 1986 the
Legislature expanded access to allow the Department of Social
Services (DSS) to use the information for conducting
background checks on applications for licenses, adoptions, and
employment in child care and related services positions.
DOJ provides the following summary of CACI on its Web site:
"The Attorney General administers the Child Abuse Central
Index (CACI), which was created by the Legislature in 1965 as
a tool for state and local agencies to help protect the health
and safety of California's children.
"Each year, child abuse investigations are reported to the
CACI. These reports pertain to investigations of alleged
physical abuse, sexual abuse, mental/emotional abuse, and/or
severe neglect of a child. The reports are submitted by county
welfare and probation departments.
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"The information in the Index is available to aid law
enforcement investigations, prosecutions, and to provide
notification of new child abuse investigation reports
involving the same suspects and/or victims. Information also
is provided to designated social welfare agencies to help
screen applicants for licensing or employment in child care
facilities and foster homes, and to aid in background checks
for other possible child placements, and adoptions.
Dissemination of CACI information is restricted and controlled
by the Penal Code.
"Information on file in the Child Abuse Central Index include:
"Names and personal descriptors of the suspects and
victims listed on reports;
"Reporting agency that investigated the incident;
"The name and/or number assigned to the case by the
investigating agency;
"Type(s) of abuse investigated; and
"The findings of the investigation for the incident
are substantiated.
"It is important to note that the effectiveness of the index
is only as good as the quality of the information reported.
Each reporting agency is required by law to forward to the DOJ
a report of every child abuse incident it investigates, unless
the incident is determined to be unfounded or general neglect.
Each reporting agency is responsible for the accuracy,
completeness and retention of the original reports. The CACI
serves as a 'pointer' back to the original submitting agency."
(See .)
1)Statistics Regarding Juvenile Suspects in CACI : According to
DOJ, the number of listings included in CACI changes all the
time. As of November 30, 2011, CACI contained 52,973 listings
of child abuse or neglect committed by minors, 49,622 of which
were substantiated and 3,351 of which were inconclusive. Of
the total number of suspects that came to be listed as suspect
due to conduct occurring when the person was a juvenile,
46,460 had been listed only once, meaning there were no
subsequent reports.
2)DOJ Review and Purging of CACI Files : Previously, information
from an inconclusive or unsubstantiated child abuse or neglect
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report was deleted from CACI after 10 years if no subsequent
report concerning the suspected child abuser is received
within the 10-year period. ĘSee former Penal Code Section
11170(a)(3).] This provision was deleted in 2011 when the law
was amended to stop the inclusion of inconclusive or
unsubstantiated reports. The new law directed DOJ to remove
all inconclusive and unsubstantiated reports, and requires DOJ
to remove the names of suspects 100 years of age or older.
The purging provision of this bill works like the prior
purging provision, except that it is limited to suspects who
became listed as a minor.
3)Argument in Support : According to the County Welfare
Directors Association of California , "There is growing concern
that being listed as a perpetrator of abuse in CACI can result
in a young person being unable to gain employment or licensure
later in life. In some cases these individuals do not know
that they have been listed in the index and find out only
later, when seeking employment or licensure in a profession
that requires a CACI check.
"1707 would amend the CACI statute to provide that if a person
is listed in CACI as a perpetrator of child abuse due to an
incident that occurred when the person was under 18 years old,
that person's name shall be automatically removed from CACI 10
years after the date of the incident resulting in the listing,
if no subsequent reportable incidents have occurred.
"The bill also would modify CACI's notice provisions. In
instances where the known or suspected abuser is under the
jurisdiction of the juvenile court, the agency reporting abuse
to the DOJ shall be required to provide notice of the report
to the minor's attorney, if any.
"These two changes reflect a reasonable approach to ensure
that individuals who have one reported incident at a young
age, and no subsequent incidents, are not forever affected by
a listing in CACI."
4)Argument in Opposition : According to the California District
Attorneys Association , "It is important to have records of
abusive acts against children for both law enforcement and
employment purposes. Often, substantiated acts of abuse do
not result in the filing of criminal charges, but it is
nevertheless essential to have a repository for reports of
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these acts. CACI reports can be very useful in criminal
investigations and prosecutions by providing information about
prior acts including child protective services (CPS) reports
and records. The facts that an act of abuse was committed by
a juvenile and 10 years has passed since that act are not
valid reasons to remove this vital information from the CACI,
especially since the reports now in the CACI are limited to
those that are substantiated."
5)Prior Legislation :
a) AB 717 (Ammiano), Chapter 468, Statutes of 2012, amended
the CACI provisions by including only substantiated reports
and removing inconclusive and unfounded reports from CACI.
b) SB 1312 (Peace), Chapter 91, Statutes of 2002, would
have made numerous changes to CACI including the purging of
old reports. The provisions dealing with CACI were deleted
before SB 1312 was chaptered.
c) AB 2442 (Keeley), Chapter 1064, Statutes of 2002,
established the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act Task
Force for the purpose of reviewing the act and CACI.
d) AB 1447 (Granlund), of the 1999-2000 Legislative
Session, made numerous changes to CACI including the
purging of old reports. AB 1477 was never heard by the
Senate Judiciary Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Children's Law Center of California (Co-Sponsor)
Public Counsel Law Center (Co-Sponsor)
California Attorneys for Criminal Justice
County Welfare Directors Association of California
National Association of Social Workers - California Chapter
Opposition
California District Attorneys Association
AB 1707
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Analysis Prepared by : Sandy Uribe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744