BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 717
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 717 (Ammiano)
As Amended August 30, 2011
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |75-0 |(May 26, 2011) |SENATE: |38-0 |(September 6, |
| | | | | |2011) |
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Original Committee Reference: PUB. S.
SUMMARY : Amends existing provisions of law relating to the
Child Abuse Central Index (CACI) by only including substantiated
reports, and removing inconclusive and unfounded reports from
the index.
The Senate amendments :
1)Define "substantiated report" as "excluding a report where the
investigator who conducted the investigation found the report
to be false, inherently improbable, to involve an accidental
injury, or to not constitute child abuse or neglect as defined
in Section 11165.6."
2)Provide 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.
3)Make technical, non-substantive changes.
4)Add double-jointing language to avoid chaptering out issues
with AB 212 (Beall).
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.
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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 either true or inconclusive, but not those that are found
to unfounded.
3)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.
4)Directs the DOJ to maintain an index, referred to as the CACI,
of all reports of child abuse and neglect submitted as
specified.
5)Allows DOJ to disclosure 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.
6)Requires DOJ to provide written notification to a person
listed in the CACI.
7)Allows an identified child abuser to obtain the report of
suspected abuse and information contained within his or her
CACI listing.
8)Requires that information from an inconclusive or
unsubstantiated suspected child abuse or neglect report shall
be deleted from CACI after 10 years if no subsequent report
concerning the suspected child abuser is received within the
10-year period.
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AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill amended existing provisions
of law relating to the Child Abuse Central Index (CACI).
Specifically, this bill :
1)Changed CACI to include reports only of substantiated cases.
2)Removed inconclusive and unfounded reports from CACI.
3)Provided that any person listed in CACI who has reached age
100 is to be removed from CACI.
4)Provided that on or after January 1, 2012, law enforcement
need no longer report to the Department of Justice (DOJ) cases
law enforcement investigates of known or suspected child abuse
or severe neglect.
5)Allowed any person listed on the CACI before January 1, 1998,
who did not receive notice of inclusion to request a hearing
from the reporting agency within three years of learning of
his or her CACI listing.
6)Allowed any person listed on the CACI on or after January 1,
1998, but before March 1, 2008, to request a hearing to
request a hearing from the reporting agency.
7)Required 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)Required 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.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee:
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund
CACI hearings Unknown; potentially significant
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state-General
and notifications reimbursable costs for additional
hearings
Removal of requirement Significant state-reimbursable
cost-General
to report to DOJ savings to local reporting agencies
CACI updates Minor, absorbable costs to the DOJGeneral
Litigation impact Unknown; likely significant
ongoingGeneral/Local
future cost-savings, potentially in the
millions
of dollars, to state and local agencies
COMMENTS : 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.
"Additionally, any person who has not received notice of their
CACI listing prior to
January 1, 1998, when notice was not legally required, may
request a due process hearing as well as any person after
January 1, 1998, who received notice, but not a hearing. Any
case that has been found unsubstantiated through a due process
hearing shall be removed from CACI.
"Finally, AB 717 would require the DOJ to purge all
unsubstantiated listings and all listings when the person has
reached 100 years of age."
Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion
of this bill.
AB 717
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Analysis Prepared by : Sandy Uribe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744
FN: 0002474