Department of Justice: child abuse reporting.

Assembly Member Ransom’s measure couples a broadened background-check framework for Court Appointed Special Advocates with a new, ongoing link to the Child Abuse Central Index, aligning state and federal criminal history checks with CASA personnel records in the CAC Central Index.

The core changes require designated CASA programs to submit fingerprint images and related information for all employment and volunteer candidates to the Department of Justice so a state- and federal-criminal history background check can be conducted, alongside access to information about any child abuse investigations in the CAC Central Index. For state-level records, CASA programs must request a subsequent arrest notification for all candidates. The bill directs DOJ to monitor the CAC Central Index and notify the CASA program if a record involving a CASA employee or volunteer is added; it also establishes a process for terminating notification when an individual no longer holds a position covered by the notification, and for ongoing verification every six months that notifications remain applicable. If a CASA program receives a notification about an unknown individual or one whose notification was previously terminated, it must inform DOJ immediately.

DOJ would respond to background checks under existing procedures that cover state- and federal-level information, while adjusting the fee structure to reflect the new federal-information processing and subsequent notification costs. Specifically, the bill requires a fee to cover federal-level checks, prohibits a fee for state-level checks, and allows increases to offset the cost of processing CAC Central Index notifications. The bill also reaffirms that there is one designated CASA program per county, as defined by related Welfare and Institutions Code provisions.

In terms of implementation, the proposal does not specify an explicit effective date within the text, and it delegates ongoing monitoring and verification duties to both DOJ and CASA programs. The changes affect DOJ’s administrative responsibilities, CASA program operations, and the CAC Central Index workflow, while leaving existing statutory references to background checks and related processes as the framework for the new requirements. The fiscal and privacy dimensions are tied to fee adjustments and the continuous data-sharing and notification regime described, with no general appropriation attached in the bill.