BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 717
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Date of Hearing: May 18, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 717 (Ammiano) - As Amended: April 25, 2011
Policy Committee: Public
SafetyVote: 7-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill makes a series of changes relating to the Department
of Justice's (DOJ) Child Abuse Central Index (CACI) designed to
address acknowledged legal infirmities. Specifically, this bill:
1)Changes CACI to include reports only of substantiated cases,
rather than reports determined not be unfounded .
2)Removes inconclusive and unfounded reports from CACI.
3)Removes any person from CACI who has reached age 100.
4)Provides that after January 1, 2012, law enforcement need no
longer directly report to DOJ cases law enforcement
investigates of known or suspected child abuse or severe
neglect. (These cases will be reported through social service
agencies, who do the bulk of the reporting.)
5)Allows persons listed on CACI before January 1, 1998 (when
notice was not required) and persons listed between 1998 and
March 2008 (before notice of the right to a hearing became
required as a result of litigation) to request a hearing from
the reporting agency.
6)Requires a reporting agency to notify to DOJ when a due
process hearing results in a finding that a CACI listing was
based on an unsubstantiated report and requires DOJ to remove
a person's name from the CACI when it is so notified.
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FISCAL EFFECT
1)Unknown significant ongoing litigation-related savings, likely
in the millions of dollars, to DOJ.
2)Minor absorbable costs to DOJ to update CACI.
3)Potential minor reimbursable costs to local agencies for
additional CACI deletion hearings and notifications, offset by
potential litigation savings.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author's intent is address to constitutional
infirmities in the CACI scheme.
According to the author, "AB 717 is a response to several
court decisions which collectively state that CACI is
unconstitutional because it does not notice all people of
their inclusion in CACI, offer a due process hearing, or give
people listed in CACI with unsubstantiated cases of abuse or
neglect a procedure to have their names removed from the
database.
"AB 717 would make CACI constitutional by only including the
reports from local agencies of investigations that are
substantiated. Agencies that have previously filed
substantiated reports that have been found unsubstantiated
shall notify DOJ for removal from CACI. Law enforcement
agencies would be no longer required to report investigations
to CACI.
2)DOJ appears to agree with this bill in concept .
3)Current law requires specified local agencies to send DOJ
reports of every investigated case of child abuse or severe
neglect determined to be either true or inconclusive, but not
those found to be unfounded, and requires DOJ to maintain CACI
and authorizes DOJ to disclosure CACI information for child
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abuse investigation, licensing, and employment applications,
as specified.
4)Support . According to the Child and Family Protection
Association, "AB 717 will help many innocent individuals who,
under current law, find themselves trapped in a
legal/administrative system where it is extremely difficult to
prove their innocence and to get their names removed from the
CACI.
"AB 717, as currently written, would protect the reputation
and very likely the ability of innocent individuals to apply
for or retain specified employment, licensing, or volunteer
status. These would be individuals who had been investigated
on an allegation of child abuse or neglect where the
conclusion of the investigation was 'inconclusive' and NOT
determined to be 'substantiated.' "
5)The committee has received no formal notice of opposition .
Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081