[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 764 Introduced in House (IH)]
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 764
To require the Attorney General to establish a Federal register of
cases of child abuse or neglect.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 10, 2005
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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