BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1707 Page 1 CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS AB 1707 (Ammiano) As Amended August 24, 2012 Majority vote ----------------------------------------------------------------- |ASSEMBLY: |54-18|(May 14, 2012) |SENATE: |27-3 |(August 29, | | | | | | |2012) | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Original Committee Reference: PUB. S. SUMMARY : Removes non-reoffending minors from the Child Abuse Central Index (CACI) after 10 years, and amends the CACI notice provisions. The Senate amendments : 1)Delete the provision requiring that notice of a CACI listing be given to the attorney of a foster child. 2)Double join this bill with AB 1712 (Beall) to avoid chaptering issues. 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. 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. 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. 4)Allows DOJ to disclose information contained in the CACI to multiple identified parties for purposes of child abuse investigation, licensing, and employment applications for positions that have interaction with children. AB 1707 Page 2 5)Requires reporting agencies to provide written notification to a person reported to the CACI. 6)Provides 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. 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. 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. 9)Provides that any person listed in CACI who has reached age 100 is to be removed from CACI. AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill: 1)Provided 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)Required 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 non-minor dependent of the juvenile court (a foster child). FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee: 1)Ongoing state-reimbursable costs, likely in the range of $25,000 to $100,000 (General Fund) statewide to local agencies for additional reporting requirements. 2)Ongoing minor, absorbable costs (General Fund) to DOJ to purge 10-year-old CACI listings with no subsequent reports. COMMENTS : According to the author, "Children can be listed on CACI as perpetrators of physical abuse if they injure another child in AB 1707 Page 3 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. "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." Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion of this bill. Analysis Prepared by : Sandy Uribe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744 FN: 0005646