House approves substituted bill to limit access to unsubstantiated child-abuse registry records, sends it to Senate

Representative Jennifer Harper moved the House to replace the second substitute with a third substitute for Senate Bill 17, Child Abuse and Neglect Registry, Management and Licensing Information Systems Amendments, saying the earlier version "had some unintended consequences and it also resulted in a very large fiscal note." She told the chamber the third substitute removes the problematic section and "thus the fiscal note was eliminated by removing that 1 section of the code from this bill from the third substitute."

In floor explanation, Harper said the bill "creates a new definition in the Government Records Access Management Act regarding records in the management information system" used by the Division of Child and Family Services for allegations of abuse or neglect. She said the substitute establishes a judicial review of agency findings, grants rulemaking authority to the Judicial Council and limits who may access records that courts deem "unsupported or unsubstantiated." Harper said those parts of the management information system would become "a protected record accessed by only a couple of people" until appeal or substantiation occurs.

Representative McGee sought reassurance that restricting access to unsubstantiated records would not erase potentially valuable background: "I talked several weeks ago with members of the agency... I know there is concern about the unsubstantiated over time may provide some valuable background information and it wouldn't be unfortunate to have lost track of that altogether... could you give me reassurance in that area?" Harper replied that the substitute "just talks about the holding that as a protected record. It does not have anything to removing it... We're just limiting access to the records that are without merit or unsupported, while those automatically come off or whatever the current law is or there's an appeal period."

Representative Katy Mascaro, cochair of the Child Welfare Legislative Oversight Committee, urged support and said the committee and the bill sponsor had worked with the department and the Attorney General's Office to balance access for the judicial process against inappropriate disclosure: "This bill has been supported by the Child Welfare Legislative Oversight Committee and we urge your support of it."

Summation was waived and the House opened the vote. The House recorded that the third substitute of Senate Bill 17 received 64 yes votes and 7 no votes; the clerk announced the measure "passes this body" and will be returned to the Senate for further consideration.