BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1022
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 1022 (Steinberg)
As Amended August 18, 2008
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :22-11
PUBLIC SAFETY 4-2 APPROPRIATIONS 11-6
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|Ayes:|Solorio, De La Torre, Ma, |Ayes:|Leno, Caballero, Davis, |
| |Portantino | |DeSaulnier, Huffman, |
| | | |Karnette, Krekorian, Ma, |
| | | |Nava, Solorio, De Leon |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Aghazarian, Anderson |Nays:|Walters, Emmerson, La |
| | | |Malfa, Lieu, Nakanishi, |
| | | |Sharon Runner |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Allows a person to have his or her name removed from
the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Child Abuse Central Index
(CACI) if the person was under the age of 18 at the time of the
suspected incident and the incident did not result in a
delinquency adjudication or a criminal conviction.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Provides that if a person is listed in the CACI as a suspect
in a child abuse or neglect investigation due to an incident
that occurred when the person was under 18 years of age and
the incident did not result in a delinquency adjudication or a
criminal conviction to make a written request to the DOJ to
have his/her name removed from the CACI as a suspect as a with
respect to an incident when the person was under the age of 18
years and requires that the request be notarized and include
the person's name, address, social security number and date of
birth.
2)Requires the DOJ, upon receipt of a request to inquire of the
submitting agency whether the incident resulted in a
delinquency adjudication or criminal conviction and unless the
submitting agency responds to the DOJ in the affirmative
within 30 days, to remove the person's name from the CACI as
the person suspected in the incident.
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3)Provides that the information from an inconclusive or
unsubstantiated report be deleted after five years if no
subsequent report concerning the same suspected abuser is
received within that time period, and the suspected child
abuser was a minor at the time of the report.
4)Requires the DOJ, if a known or suspected child abuser is a
minor, to notify the minor's current caregiver, the minor's
parents or legal guardian, the minor's attorney, ands the
minor's guardian at litem, if any, that the minor has been
reported to the CACI.
5)Requires that the DOJ notify, in writing, the victim; the
victim's current caregiver; and, if the victim is a dependent
child, the victim's attorney and guardian ad litem, if any,
when he/she has been reported to the CACI.
6)Provides that if a person is listed in the CACI as a suspect
with respect to more than one reported incident, the specified
process shall be followed with respect to each incident for
which the person wishes to have his or her name removed from
the CACI.
7)Double-joints this bill with AB 2618 (Solorio) and AB 2651
(Aghazarian), which are both pending on the Senate floor.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires that any mandated reporter who has knowledge of or
observes a child, in his or her professional capacity or
within the scope of his/her employment whom he or she knows or
reasonably suspects has been the victim of child abuse, shall
report it immediately to a specified child protection agency.
2)Requires that reports of suspected child abuse or neglect
shall be made by a mandated reporter to any police or
sheriff's department, a county probation department if
designated by the county to receive mandated reports, or the
county welfare department.
3)Defines "mandated reporter" as specific child-care custodians,
health practitioners, law enforcement officers, and other
medical and professional persons.
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4)Requires specified government agencies to forward to the DOJ a
report of every case of suspected child abuse or neglect which
is determined not to be unfounded; and if a previously filed
report proves to be unfounded, the DOJ shall be notified in
writing, and shall not retain that report.
5)Requires at the time a reporting agency forwards a report of
suspected child abuse or neglect to the DOJ, that the agency
notify the known or suspected child abuser that he/she has
been reported to CACI. This requirement applies only to
reports forwarded to DOJ after January 1, 1998 (the date upon
which the requirement became operative).
6)Defines the following types of suspected child abuse or
neglect reports:
a) "Unfounded report" is a report that is determined by the
investigator to be false, inherently improbable, an
accidental injury, or not to constitute child abuse or
neglect, as defined;
b) "Substantiated report" is a report that is determined by
the investigator based on some credible evidence to
constitute child abuse or neglect, as defined; and,
c) "Inconclusive report" is a report that is determined not
to be unfounded, but in which the findings are inconclusive
and there is insufficient evidence to determine if child
abuse or neglect, as defined, has occurred.
7)Requires the DOJ to maintain an index of all reports of child
abuse and neglect submitted by the specified reporting
agencies. The index shall be continually updated and shall
not contain any reports determined to be unfounded.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee analysis:
1)Ongoing General Fund costs, likely in excess of $150,000, for
DOJ personnel to review requests for CACI name purges.
DOJ reports 820,000 reports currently stored in CACI. DOJ
estimates that about 62,400 of the originating incidents of
child abuse were allegedly committed by persons who, at the
time of the incident, were under the age of 18. If DOJ
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receives purge requests for five percent of 62,000 reports
(3,100), and each review averages 1 hours of staff time, the
first year cost would be about $200,000.
2)Minor absorbable costs to DOJ to provide notice to minors'
caregivers, parents, guardians, and attorneys that a minor has
been reported to the CACI.
3)Minor non-reimbursable local law enforcement costs to provide
adjudication information, upon request to DOJ.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "This bill creates a process
by which minors (younger than 18 at the time of the reportable
incident), reported to CACI as a suspect in a case of abuse or
neglect, may petition DOJ to have their name purged from CACI
unless the reportable incident resulted in an adjudication or
criminal conviction. If the incident resulted in an
adjudication or criminal conviction, the suspect would NOT be
eligible for this purging process, which is similar to the
current law process for victims of child abuse and neglect to
have their names purged from CACI."
Please see the policy committee analysis for full discussion of
this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Gregory Pagan / PUB. S. / (916)
319-3744
FN: 0007124