SENATE FILE 2119

BY  COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES

(SUCCESSOR TO SSB 3038)

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to the sealing and expungement of child abuse registry information.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 235A.18, subsection 1, paragraph a, Code Supplement 2011, is amended to read as follows:
   a.  Report and disposition data relating to a particular case of alleged child abuse shall be sealed ten years after the initial placement of the data in the registry unless good cause be shown why the data should remain open to authorized access. If a subsequent report of an alleged case of child abuse involving the child named in the initial data placed in the registry as the victim of abuse or a person named in the data as having abused a child is received by the department within this ten-year period, the data shall be sealed ten years after receipt of the subsequent report unless good cause be shown why the data should remain open to authorized access. However, such report and
 
a person named in the initial data placed in the registry as having abused a child shall have the person’s name removed from the registry if that person has not had a subsequent case of alleged abuse which resulted in the person’s name being placed in the registry as the person responsible for the abuse within the ten-year period. Report and disposition data shall be made available to the department of justice if the department requests access to the alleged child abuse records for purposes of review by the prosecutor’s review committee or commitment of sexually violent predators under chapter 229A.
EXPLANATION
   This bill amends Code section 235A.18, relating to sealing and expungement of founded child abuse information. The bill requires a person’s name to be removed from the child abuse registry by the department of human services after 10 years as long as that person has had no subsequent founded child abuse report or reports during that 10-year time span. The bill states the person’s name will be removed regardless of whether the report and disposition data relating to the particular case remain open to authorized access.