BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                      



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          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                  AB 1707|
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                                 THIRD READING


          Bill No:  AB 1707
          Author:   Ammiano (D)
          Amended:  8/21/12 in Senate
          Vote:     21

           
           SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE  :  6-0, 6/12/12
          AYES:  Hancock, Anderson, Harman, Liu, Price, Steinberg
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Calderon

           SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE  :  7-0, 8/16/12
          AYES:  Kehoe, Walters, Alquist, Dutton, Lieu, Price, 
            Steinberg

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  54-18, 5/14/12 - See last page for vote


           SUBJECT  :    Child Abuse Central Index

           SOURCE  :     Public Counsel
                      Childrens Law Center of California


           DIGEST  :    This bill revises the law concerning the Child 
          Abuse Central Index (CACI) to provide that a person listed 
          in the CACI when they were under 18 years of age at the 
          time of the report  shall be removed 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, as specified. 

           ANALYSIS  :    Existing law establishes the Child Abuse and 
          Neglect Reporting Act (CANRA), which generally is intended 
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          to protect children from abuse and neglect.  (Penal Code 
          Section 11164.)

          Existing law requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to 
          maintain an index of all reports of child abuse and severe 
          neglect submitted by specified reporting agencies.  CACI is 
          required by statute to be continually updated and not 
          contain any reports determined to be unfounded.  (Penal 
          Code Section 11170(a) (1).)

          Existing law states that the DOJ shall act only as a 
          repository of the suspected child abuse or neglect reports 
          that are maintained in CACI, and that the reporting 
          agencies are responsible for the accuracy, completeness, 
          and retention of reports.  (Penal Code Section 
          11170(a)(2).)  Only information from reports that are 
          reported as substantiated shall be filed, and all other 
          determinations shall be removed from the central list.  
          (Penal Code Section 11170(a)(3).)

          This bill requires that 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.

          Existing law generally provides that persons listed on the 
          CACI have the right to a due process hearing before the 
          agency that requested his or her inclusion in the CACI, as 
          specified.  (Penal Code Section 11169(e).)  Existing law 
          also provides that any person listed in the CACI who has 
          reached 100 years of age shall have his or her listing 
          removed from the CACI.  (Penal Code Section 11169(f).)

          This bill provides that 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.  

           Prior Legislation
           
          SB 1022 (Steinberg), 2008, which was vetoed.

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           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  No   Fiscal Com.:  Yes   
          Local:  Yes

          According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:

           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 DOJ to 
            purge ten-year old CACI listings with no subsequent 
            reports.

           SUPPORT :   (Verified  8/17/12)

          Public Counsel (co-source) 
          Children's Law Center of California (co-source) 
          California State Association of Counties
          California Public Defenders Association
          National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter
          California Attorneys for Criminal Justice
          County Welfare Directors Association of California
          Conference of California Bar Associations

           OPPOSITION  :    (Verified  8/17/12)

          California District Attorneys Association
          California Police Chiefs Association, Inc.

           ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT  :    According to the author's office:

               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.

          The sponsors of this bill submit that the lifetime 
          consequence of a CACI listing for children is inappropriate 
          and unfair.  Children's Law Center of California states:

               A CACI listing can have a severe impact on a child's 
               future.  If a child listed in CACI later seeks to 
               become a foster parent, an adoptive parent, or to work 
               in law enforcement or a child-care facility, the 
               licensing agency or prospective employer would be 
               notified that the individual is listed as a suspected 
               abuser.  Though the child, now young adult, may have 
               long since healed from and/or received the appropriate 
               services to address the underlying issue that led to 
               the reported incident, they can be forever 
               disadvantaged by the listing.  The effects of the CACI 
               listing can truly impact the youth for years into the 
               future.

           ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION  :    The California District 
          Attorneys Association and the California Police Chiefs 
          Association, which oppose this bill, state:

               It is important to have records of abusive acts 
               against children for both law enforcement and 

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               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 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.

               In fiscal year 2010-2011, there were a total of 
               276,985 CACI search requests.  Of those, 90 percent 
               were regulatory, and less than 10 percent 
               investigatory.  Of these investigatory requests made 
               last fiscal year, nearly 80 percent were made by one 
               agency, the Los Angeles Department of Children and 
               Family Services (DCFS).  Regulatory requests resulted 
               in 2.74 percent possible matches; investigatory 
               matches resulted in 18.09 percent possible matches.  
               The highest percentage of possible matches - 21.30 
               percent - came from citizen inquiries, which comprised 
               only 0.3 percent of all CACI search requests.


           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  54-18, 05/14/12
          AYES:  Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Beall, Bill 
            Berryhill, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford, Brownley, 
            Buchanan, Butler, Campos, Carter, Cedillo, Chesbro, 
            Davis, Dickinson, Eng, Fong, Fuentes, Galgiani, Gordon, 
            Halderman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Roger Hernández, Hill, 
            Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Lara, Bonnie 
            Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Mitchell, Monning, 
            Nestande, Norby, Olsen, Pan, V. Manuel Pérez, Skinner, 
            Smyth, Swanson, Torres, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, 
            John A. Pérez
          NOES:  Charles Calderon, Conway, Donnelly, Feuer, Beth 
            Gaines, Garrick, Gatto, Gorell, Grove, Knight, Logue, 
            Mansoor, Morrell, Nielsen, Portantino, Silva, Solorio, 
            Wagner
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Atkins, Block, Cook, Fletcher, Furutani, 
            Hagman, Perea, Valadao

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          RJG:n  8/20/12   Senate Floor Analyses 

                         SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

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