ENROLLED ORIGINAL
A RESOLUTION
23-524
IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
September 22, 2020
To declare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to amend section 14-307 of
the District of Columbia Official Code to prohibit sexual assault counselors from
disclosing confidential information acquired from a client in a professional capacity
without consent of the client or their legal representative; and to amend the Sexual
Assault Victims Rights Amendment Act of 2019 to extend the applicability date for
certain provisions from October 1, 2020 to January 1, 2021.
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this
resolution may be cited as the Sexual Assault Victims Rights Clarification Emergency
Declaration Resolution of 2020.
Sec. 2. (a) On November 5, 2019, the Council passed the Sexual Assault Victims Rights
Amendment Act of 2019, effective March 3, 2020 (D.C. Law 23-57; 67 DCR 3072) (law).
(b) To account for the time needed to train individuals to serve as sexual assault
counselors, sexual assault victim advocates, and sexual assault youth victim advocates to
implement the law, the laws provisions expanding the right to these trained individuals were
subject to an applicability clause that delayed their applicability until October 1, 2020.
(c) On March 11, 2020, the Mayor declared a public health emergency in the District of
Columbia through Mayors Order 2020-045.
(d) As a result of the public health emergency, many of the organizations that had
expressed interest in providing adult and youth advocacy services under the law faced difficulties
expanding their services.
(e) To ensure the organizations have enough time to train additional individuals to serve
as sexual assault counselors, sexual assault victim advocates, and sexual assault youth victim
advocates, there exists a need to amend the laws applicability date to extend the applicability of
sections related to the right to these trained individuals from October 1, 2020 to January 1, 2021.
(f) Furthermore, there exists a need to amend section 14-307 of the District of Columbia
Official Code to clarify that sexual assault counselors are not permitted to disclose confidential
information acquired from a client in a professional capacity without the consent of the client or
their legal representative. This is a technical change that was omitted in the law.
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 ENROLLED ORIGINAL
Sec. 3. The Council of the District of Columbia determines that the circumstances
enumerated in section 2 constitute emergency circumstances making it necessary that the Sexual
Assault Victims Rights Clarification Emergency Amendment Act of 2020 be adopted after a
single reading.
Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately.
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