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Committee hears SJ30 study on child abuse registry expungement; concurrence motion fails and item tabled
Summary
Senate Joint Resolution 30, an interim study of the Child Abuse and Neglect Registry that would explore expungement procedures and registry duration, failed a motion to concur in committee and was subsequently tabled after members cited recent enactment of a registry and expungement process.
Senate Joint Resolution 30, an interim study of the state Child Abuse and Neglect Registry and a possible expungement process, was introduced to the House Human Services Committee and later tabled.
Senator Lentz opened the hearing by saying SJ30 would examine how the registry operates and would "address add in an expungement process" so that expungement language would ultimately appear in law. Nikki Grossberg, Division Administrator for Child and Family Services, appeared as an informational witness and answered committee questions about the study's scope and timing.
Representative Cunningham asked whether the interim deadline (Sept. 15) left enough time to gather meaningful data; Senator Lentz said the expungement portion would be a relatively small part of the study and that some deadlines reflect statutory committee timelines.
When the committee moved into executive action, Vice Chair Howell moved that the committee concur in SJ30 but noted the Legislature already passed Senate Bill 468 this session, which created a registry in statute and an expungement process. A roll-call vote recorded 8 ayes and 13 nays, and the motion to concur failed. The committee then voted to table SJ30.
The record shows opposition to a duplicate study where recent statute already addresses the registry; the committee did not adopt SJ30 for further work at this time.
