BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 1707 (Ammiano) - Child Abuse Central Index.
Amended: March 13, 2012 Policy Vote: Public Safety 6-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: June 25, 2012
Consultant: Jolie Onodera
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 1707 would provide that any person listed in
the Child Abuse Central Index (CACI) who was under 18 years of
age at the time of the report shall be removed from the CACI ten
years from the date of the incident resulting in the CACI
listing if no subsequent report is received during that time
period. This bill would require mandated reporting agencies to
provide notice of CACI reports to the attorney of a known or
suspected child abuser when the individual is either a minor or
a nonminor dependent.
Fiscal Impact:
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 the
Department of Justice (DOJ) to purge ten-year old CACI
listings with no subsequent reports.
Background: Existing law requires the DOJ to maintain an index
of all reports of child abuse and severe neglect submitted by
specified reporting agencies. Existing law prohibits a reporting
agency from forwarding a report to the DOJ unless it has
conducted an active investigation and determined that the report
is substantiated. Existing law further requires that when
mandated reporting agencies forward a report in writing to the
DOJ, the agency shall notify in writing the known or suspected
child abuser that he or she has been reported to the CACI.
Information from the DOJ indicates there were approximately
700,000 CACI listings as of February 2012. Of the total,
approximately 53,000 listings were for individuals who were
minors at the time of the report, and of those, approximately
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47,500 listings (nearly 90 percent) had no subsequent report
filed on the specified individual.
Proposed Law: This bill provides the following:
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.
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.
Mandated reporting agencies shall provide notice of CACI
reports to the attorney of a known or suspected child
abuser if the subject is either a minor or a nonminor
dependent under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court.
Related Legislation: SB 1022 (Steinberg) 2008 would have
required the DOJ to remove CACI listings for persons under 18
years of age at the time of incidents that did not result in a
delinquency adjudication or criminal conviction subject to a
notarized written request from the individual to the DOJ to have
his or her name removed as a suspect with respect to that
incident. This bill was vetoed by the Governor with the
following message:
I am returning Senate Bill 1022 without my signature. This
measure is unnecessary given that current law already provides
the ability for the removal of names from the Child Abuse
Central Index. In addition, this bill would impose additional
General Fund costs on state government during a time of
significant General Fund program reductions.
Staff Comments: The DOJ has indicated ongoing costs to purge the
applicable CACI listings for reports filed for minors with no
subsequent CACI listings after 10 years would be minor and
absorbable within the parameters of the current vendor contract
for CACI.
Mandated reporting agencies will incur additional workload and
mailing costs to provide notice of CACI reports to the attorney
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of a minor or a nonminor dependent under the jurisdiction of the
juvenile court (foster care placement) that is reported to CACI.
Any additional costs are likely to be subject to reimbursement
by the state, as the Commission on State Mandates previously
approved a test claim in December 2007 associated with the
mandate on local reporting agencies to notify in writing the
known or suspected child abuser that he or she has been reported
to CACI.
Costs would be dependent on the number of applicable CACI
reports for minors and nonminor dependents, and the level of
workload involved. Data over two fiscal years indicate less than
10 percent of annual CACI listings are attributable to suspects
under 18 years of age when listed in CACI. However, it is
unknown at this time how many additional listings would be
attributable to nonminor dependents. Assuming mailing and
minimal local agency workload costs to notify attorneys of
minors and nonminor dependents would result in ongoing annual
state-reimbursable costs in the range of $25,000 to $100,000
(General Fund) statewide.
Recommended Amendments: Staff recommends a technical amendment
in Section 1 of the bill to reference nonminor dependents, as
well as to add a cross reference to Section 11400(v) of the
Welfare and Institutions Code that specifically defines this
population.