BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1707|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1707
Author: Ammiano (D)
Amended: 8/21/12 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 6-0, 6/12/12
AYES: Hancock, Anderson, Harman, Liu, Price, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: Calderon
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-0, 8/16/12
AYES: Kehoe, Walters, Alquist, Dutton, Lieu, Price,
Steinberg
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 54-18, 5/14/12 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Child Abuse Central Index
SOURCE : Public Counsel
Childrens Law Center of California
DIGEST : This bill revises the law concerning the Child
Abuse Central Index (CACI) to provide that a person listed
in the CACI when they were under 18 years of age at the
time of the report shall be removed 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, as specified.
ANALYSIS : Existing law establishes the Child Abuse and
Neglect Reporting Act (CANRA), which generally is intended
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to protect children from abuse and neglect. (Penal Code
Section 11164.)
Existing law requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to
maintain an index of all reports of child abuse and severe
neglect submitted by specified reporting agencies. CACI is
required by statute to be continually updated and not
contain any reports determined to be unfounded. (Penal
Code Section 11170(a) (1).)
Existing law states that the DOJ shall act only as a
repository of the suspected child abuse or neglect reports
that are maintained in CACI, and that the reporting
agencies are responsible for the accuracy, completeness,
and retention of reports. (Penal Code Section
11170(a)(2).) Only information from reports that are
reported as substantiated shall be filed, and all other
determinations shall be removed from the central list.
(Penal Code Section 11170(a)(3).)
This bill requires that 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.
Existing law generally provides that persons listed on the
CACI have the right to a due process hearing before the
agency that requested his or her inclusion in the CACI, as
specified. (Penal Code Section 11169(e).) Existing law
also provides that any person listed in the CACI who has
reached 100 years of age shall have his or her listing
removed from the CACI. (Penal Code Section 11169(f).)
This bill provides that 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.
Prior Legislation
SB 1022 (Steinberg), 2008, which was vetoed.
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FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
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 DOJ to
purge ten-year old CACI listings with no subsequent
reports.
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/17/12)
Public Counsel (co-source)
Children's Law Center of California (co-source)
California State Association of Counties
California Public Defenders Association
National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter
California Attorneys for Criminal Justice
County Welfare Directors Association of California
Conference of California Bar Associations
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/17/12)
California District Attorneys Association
California Police Chiefs Association, Inc.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office:
Children can be listed on CACI as perpetrators of
physical abuse if they injure another child in
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.
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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.
The sponsors of this bill submit that the lifetime
consequence of a CACI listing for children is inappropriate
and unfair. Children's Law Center of California states:
A CACI listing can have a severe impact on a child's
future. If a child listed in CACI later seeks to
become a foster parent, an adoptive parent, or to work
in law enforcement or a child-care facility, the
licensing agency or prospective employer would be
notified that the individual is listed as a suspected
abuser. Though the child, now young adult, may have
long since healed from and/or received the appropriate
services to address the underlying issue that led to
the reported incident, they can be forever
disadvantaged by the listing. The effects of the CACI
listing can truly impact the youth for years into the
future.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The California District
Attorneys Association and the California Police Chiefs
Association, which oppose this bill, state:
It is important to have records of abusive acts
against children for both law enforcement and
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employment purposes. Often, substantiated acts of
abuse do not result in the filing of criminal charges,
but it is nevertheless essential to have a repository
for reports of these acts. CACI reports can be very
useful in criminal investigations and prosecutions by
providing information about prior acts including child
protective services (CPS) reports and records. The
facts that an act of abuse was committed by a juvenile
and 10 years has passed since that act are not valid
reasons to remove this vital information from the
CACI, especially since the reports now in the CACI are
limited to those that are substantiated.
In fiscal year 2010-2011, there were a total of
276,985 CACI search requests. Of those, 90 percent
were regulatory, and less than 10 percent
investigatory. Of these investigatory requests made
last fiscal year, nearly 80 percent were made by one
agency, the Los Angeles Department of Children and
Family Services (DCFS). Regulatory requests resulted
in 2.74 percent possible matches; investigatory
matches resulted in 18.09 percent possible matches.
The highest percentage of possible matches - 21.30
percent - came from citizen inquiries, which comprised
only 0.3 percent of all CACI search requests.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 54-18, 05/14/12
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford, Brownley,
Buchanan, Butler, Campos, Carter, Cedillo, Chesbro,
Davis, Dickinson, Eng, Fong, Fuentes, Galgiani, Gordon,
Halderman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Roger Hern�ndez, Hill,
Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Lara, Bonnie
Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Mitchell, Monning,
Nestande, Norby, Olsen, Pan, V. Manuel P�rez, Skinner,
Smyth, Swanson, Torres, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada,
John A. P�rez
NOES: Charles Calderon, Conway, Donnelly, Feuer, Beth
Gaines, Garrick, Gatto, Gorell, Grove, Knight, Logue,
Mansoor, Morrell, Nielsen, Portantino, Silva, Solorio,
Wagner
NO VOTE RECORDED: Atkins, Block, Cook, Fletcher, Furutani,
Hagman, Perea, Valadao
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RJG:n 8/20/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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