[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5219 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5219

  To require the Attorney General to establish a Federal register of 
                    cases of child abuse or neglect.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 5, 2004

  Mrs. Kelly introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To require the Attorney General to establish a Federal register of 
                    cases of child abuse or neglect.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds as follows:
            (1) The Report and Recommendations of the Westchester 
        County, New York, January ``B'' 2004 Grand Jury, entitled 
        ``Returning Abused Children to their Abusers: How Westchester 
        County's Child Protective System Fails the Children it Most 
        Needs to Protect'', identified 3 essential principles that 
        should guide child services programs, namely, maintaining that 
        the best interest of the child is paramount, ensuring 
        continuity in case supervision with all relevant parties 
        involved and all relevant information shared, and assigning 
        special priority to the identification of high-risk cases.
            (2) Such report also observed that, because there is no 
        direct way for the State of New York to report an individual's 
        history of child abuse to another State, and a child may be 
        placed at greater risk if an offender with an established 
        history of child abuse moves to a State where his or her 
        history is unknown, a national central register of cases of 
        child abuse or neglect must be created.
            (3) 896,000 children were determined to be victims of child 
        abuse or neglect in 2002.
            (4) The rate of victimization per 1,000 children in the 
        national population has dropped from 13.4 children in 1990 to 
        12.3 children in 2002.
            (5) 1,400 children died due to child abuse or neglect in 
        2002.
            (6) A 2002 Department of Health and Human Services child 
        and family services review suggests that difficulties States 
        experience in preventing maltreatment recurrence may be due to 
        inadequate identification of abusers.
            (7) When an individual is convicted of a crime in New York, 
        police in California know and are able to identify the 
        violator. Child abusers should be as easily identifiable for 
        State and local child protective services.
            (8) Many States currently maintain a child maltreatment 
        registry that collects information about maltreated children 
        and individuals who were found to have abused or neglected 
        children, in order to protect children from contact with 
        individuals who may mistreat them.
            (9) Some States that maintain such registries are 
        explicitly prohibited under State law from sharing this 
        important data with other States.

SEC. 2. NATIONAL REGISTER OF CASES OF CHILD ABUSE OR NEGLECT.

    (a) In General.--The Attorney General shall create a national 
register of cases of child abuse or neglect. The information in such 
register shall be supplied by States, or, at the option of a State, by 
political subdivisions of such State.
    (b) Information.--The register described in subsection (a) shall 
collect in a central electronic database information on children 
reported to a State, or a political subdivision of a State, as abused 
or neglected.
    (c) Scope of Information.--
            (1) In general.--
                    (A) Treatment of reports.--The information to be 
                provided to the Attorney General under this section 
                shall relate to substantiated reports of child abuse or 
                neglect. Except as provided in subparagraph (B), each 
                State, or, at the option of a State, each political 
                subdivision of such State, shall determine whether the 
                information to be provided to the Attorney General 
                under this section shall also relate to reports of 
                suspected instances of child abuse or neglect that were 
                unsubstantiated or determined to be unfounded.
                    (B) Exception.--If a State or political subdivision 
                of a State has an equivalent electronic register of 
                cases of child abuse or neglect that it maintains 
                pursuant to a requirement or authorization under any 
                other provision of law, the information provided to the 
                Attorney General under this section shall be 
                coextensive with that in such register.
            (2) Form.--Information provided to the Attorney General 
        under this section--
                    (A) shall be in a standardized electronic form 
                determined by the Attorney General; and
                    (B) shall contain case-specific identifying 
                information, except that, at the option of the entity 
                supplying the information, the confidentiality of 
                identifying information concerning an individual 
                initiating a report or complaint regarding a suspected 
                or known instance of child abuse or neglect may be 
                maintained.
    (d) Construction.--This section shall not be construed to require a 
State or political subdivision of a State to modify--
            (1) an equivalent register of cases of child abuse or 
        neglect that it maintains pursuant to a requirement or 
        authorization under any other provision of law; or
            (2) any other record relating to child abuse or neglect, 
        regardless of whether the report of abuse or neglect was 
        substantiated, unsubstantiated, or determined to be unfounded.
    (e) Dissemination.--The Attorney General shall establish standards 
for the dissemination of information in the national register of cases 
of child abuse or neglect. Such standards shall preserve the 
confidentiality of records in order to protect the rights of the child 
and the child's parents or guardians while also ensuring that Federal, 
State, and local government entities have access to such information in 
order to carry out their responsibilities under law to protect children 
from abuse and neglect.
    (f) Condition on Receipt of Funds.--Compliance under this section 
shall be a condition precedent to receipt of funds under section 107 of 
the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (42 U.S.C. 5106c).
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