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 AB 1707 (Ammiano) Page 1 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 AB 1707 (Ammiano) Page 2 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.