Senate Bill sb0758c1
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Florida Senate - 2005 CS for SB 758
By the Committee on Children and Families; and Senator Wise
586-1661B-05
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to child protective
3 investigations; amending s. 39.301, F.S.;
4 prohibiting the use of information contained in
5 reports of child abuse, abandonment, or neglect
6 for purposes that adversely affect the
7 interests of persons who are not identified as
8 responsible for such abuse, abandonment, or
9 neglect; amending s. 39.302, F.S.; prohibiting
10 the use of information contained in reports of
11 child abuse, abandonment, or neglect in
12 institutional investigations for purposes that
13 adversely affect the interests of persons not
14 identified as responsible; providing
15 circumstances under which the Department of
16 Children and Family Services may rely on such
17 information in a decision to renew or revoke a
18 license; providing an effective date.
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20 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
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22 Section 1. Subsection (22) is added to section 39.301,
23 Florida Statutes, to read:
24 39.301 Initiation of protective investigations.--
25 (22) When an investigation is closed and a person is
26 not identified as a caregiver responsible for the abuse,
27 neglect, or abandonment alleged in the report, the fact that
28 the person is named in some capacity in the report may not be
29 used in any way to adversely affect the interests of that
30 person. This prohibition applies to any use of the information
31 in employment screening, licensing, child placement, adoption,
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Florida Senate - 2005 CS for SB 758
586-1661B-05
1 or any other decisions by a private adoption agency or a state
2 agency or its contracted providers.
3 Section 2. Subsection (7) is added to section 39.302,
4 Florida Statutes, to read:
5 39.302 Protective investigations of institutional
6 child abuse, abandonment, or neglect.--
7 (7) When an investigation of institutional abuse,
8 neglect, or abandonment is closed and a person is not
9 identified as a caregiver responsible for the abuse, neglect,
10 or abandonment alleged in the report, the fact that the person
11 is named in some capacity in the report may not be used in any
12 way to adversely affect the interests of that person. This
13 prohibition applies to any use of the information in
14 employment screening, licensing, child placement, adoption, or
15 any other decisions by a private adoption agency or a state
16 agency or its contracted providers. If such a person is a
17 licensee of the department and is named in any capacity in
18 three or more reports within a 5-year period, the department
19 may review those reports and determine whether the information
20 contained in the reports is relevant for purposes of
21 determining whether the person's license should be renewed or
22 revoked. If the information is relevant to the decision to
23 renew or revoke the license, the department may rely on the
24 information contained in the report in making that decision.
25 Section 3. This act shall take effect upon becoming a
26 law.
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Florida Senate - 2005 CS for SB 758
586-1661B-05
1 STATEMENT OF SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES CONTAINED IN
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
2 Senate Bill 758
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4 Removes the requirement that administrative hearings be
granted to subjects of reports of child abuse when the state
5 attorney declines to prosecute related charges.
6 Removes the prohibition against entering the name of the
subject of a report into the statewide database until the time
7 for requesting a hearing has expired or the hearing has been
held and the department has prevailed.
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Prohibits the use of information in any way to adversely
9 affect the interests of a person named in a report of abuse,
neglect, or abandonment unless the person is identified as the
10 person responsible for causing the abuse, neglect or
abandonment. Applies this prohibition to both individual
11 investigations and institutional investigations, but allows
the information to be used if relevant in institutional
12 licensing if at least three instances have been reported
within a five-year period.
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