BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair


          AB 1707 (Ammiano) - Child Abuse Central Index.
          
          Amended: March 13, 2012         Policy Vote: Public Safety 6-0
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: Yes
          Hearing Date: June 25, 2012                            
          Consultant: Jolie Onodera       
          
          This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
          
          
          Bill Summary: AB 1707 would provide that any person listed in 
          the Child Abuse Central Index (CACI) who was under 18 years of 
          age at the time of the report shall be removed from the CACI ten 
          years from the date of the incident resulting in the CACI 
          listing if no subsequent report is received during that time 
          period. This bill would require mandated reporting agencies to 
          provide notice of CACI reports to the attorney of a known or 
          suspected child abuser when the individual is either a minor or 
          a nonminor dependent. 

          Fiscal Impact: 
              Ongoing state-reimbursable costs, likely in the range of 
              $25,000 to $100,000 (General Fund) statewide to local 
              agencies for additional reporting requirements.
              Ongoing minor, absorbable costs (General Fund) to the 
              Department of Justice (DOJ) to purge ten-year old CACI 
              listings with no subsequent reports.

          Background: Existing law requires the DOJ to maintain an index 
          of all reports of child abuse and severe neglect submitted by 
          specified reporting agencies. Existing law prohibits a reporting 
          agency from forwarding a report to the DOJ unless it has 
          conducted an active investigation and determined that the report 
          is substantiated. Existing law further requires that when 
          mandated reporting agencies forward a report in writing to the 
          DOJ, the agency shall notify in writing the known or suspected 
          child abuser that he or she has been reported to the CACI.  

          Information from the DOJ indicates there were approximately 
          700,000 CACI listings as of February 2012. Of the total, 
          approximately 53,000 listings were for individuals who were 
          minors at the time of the report, and of those, approximately 








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          47,500 listings (nearly 90 percent) had no subsequent report 
          filed on the specified individual.

          Proposed Law: This bill provides the following:
                 Any person listed in the CACI as of January 1, 2013, who 
               was listed prior to reaching 18 years of age, and who is 
               listed once in CACI with no subsequent listings, shall be 
               removed from the CACI 10 years from the date of the 
               incident resulting in the CACI listing.
                 If a person listed in the CACI was under 18 years of age 
               at the time of the report, the information shall be deleted 
               from the CACI 10 years from the date of the incident 
               resulting in the CACI listing, if no subsequent report 
               concerning the same person is received during that time 
               period. 
                 Mandated reporting agencies shall provide notice of CACI 
               reports to the attorney of a known or suspected child 
               abuser if the subject is either a minor or a nonminor 
               dependent under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. 

          Related Legislation: SB 1022 (Steinberg) 2008 would have 
          required the DOJ to remove CACI listings for persons under 18 
          years of age at the time of incidents that did not result in a 
          delinquency adjudication or criminal conviction subject to a 
          notarized written request from the individual to the DOJ to have 
          his or her name removed as a suspect with respect to that 
          incident. This bill was vetoed by the Governor with the 
          following message:

          I am returning Senate Bill 1022 without my signature. This 
          measure is unnecessary given that current law already provides 
          the ability for the removal of names from the Child Abuse 
          Central Index. In addition, this bill would impose additional 
          General Fund costs on state government during a time of 
          significant General Fund program reductions.

          Staff Comments: The DOJ has indicated ongoing costs to purge the 
          applicable CACI listings for reports filed for minors with no 
          subsequent CACI listings after 10 years would be minor and 
          absorbable within the parameters of the current vendor contract 
          for CACI.
           
          Mandated reporting agencies will incur additional workload and 
          mailing costs to provide notice of CACI reports to the attorney 








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          of a minor or a nonminor dependent under the jurisdiction of the 
          juvenile court (foster care placement) that is reported to CACI. 
          Any additional costs are likely to be subject to reimbursement 
          by the state, as the Commission on State Mandates previously 
          approved a test claim in December 2007 associated with the 
          mandate on local reporting agencies to notify in writing the 
          known or suspected child abuser that he or she has been reported 
          to CACI. 

          Costs would be dependent on the number of applicable CACI 
          reports for minors and nonminor dependents, and the level of 
          workload involved. Data over two fiscal years indicate less than 
          10 percent of annual CACI listings are attributable to suspects 
          under 18 years of age when listed in CACI. However, it is 
          unknown at this time how many additional listings would be 
          attributable to nonminor dependents. Assuming mailing and 
          minimal local agency workload costs to notify attorneys of 
          minors and nonminor dependents would result in ongoing annual 
          state-reimbursable costs in the range of $25,000 to $100,000 
          (General Fund) statewide.

          Recommended Amendments: Staff recommends a technical amendment 
          in Section 1 of the bill to reference nonminor dependents, as 
          well as to add a cross reference to Section 11400(v) of the 
          Welfare and Institutions Code that specifically defines this 
          population.