Existing law requires the Department of Justice (department) to maintain an index of all reports of child abuse and severe neglect submitted by agencies mandated to make those reports. Existing law requires the department to make relevant information contained in the index available to specified law enforcement agencies, county welfare departments, and other agencies that are conducting a child abuse investigation.
Existing law authorizes a designated Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program to submit fingerprint images and related information of employment and volunteer candidates to the department for the purpose of obtaining information as to the existence and nature of a record of child abuse investigations contained in the Child Abuse Central Index, state- or federal-level convictions, or state- or federal-level arrests for which the department establishes that the applicant was released on bail or on their own recognizance pending trial. Existing law requires the department to charge a fee sufficient to cover the cost of processing the requests for federal-level criminal offender record information and prohibits the department from charging a fee for state-level criminal offender record information.
This bill would require the department to monitor the Child Abuse Central Index and notify the CASA program if a record of a child abuse investigation involving a CASA employee or volunteer is added to that index. The bill would authorize the department to increase its fee for a CASA employment and volunteer candidate to cover the cost of processing those subsequent notifications.

Statutes affected:
AB 741: 11105.04 PEN
02/18/25 - Introduced: 11105.04 PEN