View all text of Subchapter III [§ 20981 - § 20991]

§ 20990. National registry of substantiated cases of child abuse
(a) In general
(b) Information
(1) Collection
(2) Type of information
(c) Scope of information
(1) In general
(A) Treatment of reports
(B) Exception
(2) Form
Information provided to the Secretary of Health and Human Services under this section—
(A) shall be in a standardized electronic form determined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services; and
(B) shall contain case-specific identifying information that is limited to the name of the perpetrator and the nature of the substantiated case of child abuse or neglect, and that complies with clauses (viii) and (ix) of section 5106a(b)(2)(A) 1
1 See References in Text note below.
of title 42.
(d) Construction
This section shall not be construed to require a State, Indian tribe, 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) Accessibility
(f) Dissemination
(g) Study
(1) In general
The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall conduct a study on the feasibility of establishing data collection standards for a national child abuse and neglect registry with recommendations and findings concerning—
(A) costs and benefits of such data collection standards;
(B) data collection standards currently employed by each State, Indian tribe, or political subdivision of a State;
(C) data collection standards that should be considered to establish a model of promising practices; and
(D) a due process procedure for a national registry.
(2) Report
(3) Authorization of appropriations
(Pub. L. 109–248, title VI, § 633, July 27, 2006, 120 Stat. 642.)