Penal Code of the State
of California
(Selected Sections)
§ 11166.8. Protocol for Development and Implementation of Interagency Child Death Teams.
Subject to available funding, the Attorney General, working with the California Consortium of Child Abuse Councils, shall develop a protocol for the development and implementation of interagency child death teams for use by counties, which shall include relevant procedures for both urban and rural counties. The protocol shall be designed to facilitate communication among persons who perform autopsies and the various persons and agencies involved in child abuse cases so that incidents of child abuse are recognized and other siblings and nonoffending family members receive the appropriate services in cases where a child has expired. The protocol shall be completed on or before January 1, 1991.
§ 11167. Information Contained in Child Abuse Reports; Identity of Informant Confidential.
(a) A telephone report of a known or suspected instance of child abuse shall include the name of the person making the report, the name of the child, the present location of the child, the nature and extent of the injury, and any other information, including information that led that person to suspect child abuse, requested by the child protective agency.
(b) Information relevant to the incident of child abuse may also be given to an investigator from a child protective agency who is investigating the known or suspected case of child abuse.
(c) Information relevant to the incident of child abuse may be given to the licensing agency when it is investigating a known or suspected case of child abuse, including the investigation report, and other pertinent materials.
(d) The identity of all persons who report under this article shall be confidential and disclosed only between child protective agencies, or to counsel representing a child protective agency, or to the district attorney in a criminal prosecution or in an action initiated under Section 602 of the Welfare and Institutions Code arising from alleged child abuse, or to counsel appointed pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 317 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, or to the county counsel or district attorney in a proceeding under Part 4 (commencing with Section 7800) of Division 12 of the Family
Code or Section 300 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, or to a licensing agency when abuse in out-of-home care is reasonably suspected, or when those persons waive confidentiality, or by court order.
No agency or person listed in this subdivision shall disclose the identity of any person who reports under this article to that person's employer, except with the employee's consent or by court order.
(e) Persons who may report pursuant to subdivision (f) of Section 11166 are not required to include their names.
§ 11167.5. Confidentiality of reports; violations; disclosure
(a) The reports required by Sections 11166 and 11166.2 shall be confidential and may be disclosed only as provided in subdivision (b). Any violation of the confidentiality provided by this article is a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed six months, by a fine of five hundred dollars ($500), or by both that imprisonment and fine.
(b) Reports of suspected child abuse and information contained therein may be disclosed only to the following:
(1) Persons or agencies to whom disclosure of the identity of the reporting party is permitted under Section 11167.
(2) Persons or agencies to whom disclosure of information is permitted under subdivision (b) of Section 11170.
(3) Persons or agencies with whom investigations of child abuse are coordinated under the regulations promulgated under Section 11174.
(4) Multidisciplinary personnel teams as defined in subdivision (d) of Section 18951 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.
(5) Persons or agencies responsible for the licensing of facilities which care for children, as specified in Section 11165.7.
(6) The State Department of Social Services or any county licensing agency which has contracted with the state, as specified in paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) of Section 11170, when an individual has applied for a community care license or child day care license, or for employment in an out-of-home care facility, or when a complaint alleges child abuse by an operator or employee of an out-of-home care facility.
(7) Hospital scan teams. As used in this paragraph, "hospital scan team" means a team of three or more persons established by a hospital, or two or more hospitals in the same county, consisting of health care professionals and representatives of law enforcement and child protective services, the members of which are engaged in the identification of child abuse. The disclosure authorized by this section includes disclosure among all hospital scan teams.
(8) Coroners and medical examiners when conducting a postmortem examination of a child.
(9) The Board of Prison Terms, who may subpoena an employee of a county welfare department who can provide relevant evidence and reports that both (A) are not unfounded, pursuant to Section 11165.12, and (B) concern only the current incidents upon which parole revocation proceedings are pending against a parolee charged with child abuse. The reports and information shall be confidential pursuant to subdivision (d) of Section 11167.
(10) Personnel from a child protective agency responsible for making a placement of a child pursuant to Section 361.3 of, and Article 7 (commencing with Section 305) of Chapter 2 of Part 1 of Division 2 of, the Welfare and Institutions Code.
(11) Persons who have been identified by the Department of Justice as listed in the Child Abuse Central Index pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 11170. Nothing in this paragraph shall preclude a submitting agency prior to disclosure from redacting the name, address, and telephone number of a witness, person who reports under this article, or victim in order to maintain confidentiality as required by law.
(12) Out-of-state law enforcement agencies conducting an investigation of child abuse only when an agency makes the request for reports of suspected child abuse in writing and on official letterhead, identifying the suspected abuser or victim by name. The request shall be signed by the department supervisor of the requesting law enforcement agency. The written request shall cite the out-of-state statute or interstate compact provision that requires that the information contained within these reports is to be disclosed only to law enforcement, prosecutorial entities, or multidisciplinary investigative teams, and shall cite the criminal penalties for unlawful disclosure provided by the requesting state or the applicable interstate compact provision. In the absence of both (1) a specific out-of-state statute or interstate compact provision that requires that the information contained within these reports be disclosed only to law enforcement, prosecutorial entities, or multidisciplinary investigative teams, and (2) criminal penalties equivalent to the penalties in California for unlawful disclosure, access shall be denied.
(13) Persons who have verified with the Department of Justice that they are listed in the Child Abuse Central Index as provided by subdivision (e) of Section 11170. Disclosure under this section shall be subject to the California Public Records Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 6250) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code). Nothing in this section prohibits a submitting agency prior to disclosure from redacting the name, address, and telephone number of a witness, person who reports under this article, or victim to maintain confidentiality as required by law.
(14) Each chairperson of a county child death review team, or his or her designee, to whom disclosure of information is permitted under this article, relating to the death of one or more children and any prior child abuse investigation reports maintained involving the same victim, siblings, or suspects. Local child death review teams may share any relevant information regarding case reviews involving child death with other child death review teams.
(c) Authorized persons within county health departments shall be permitted to receive copies of any reports made by health practitioners, as defined in Section 11165.8, pursuant to Section 11165.13, and copies of assessments completed pursuant to Sections 123600 and 123605 of the Health and Safety Code, to the extent permitted by federal law. Any information received pursuant to this subdivision is protected by subdivision (e).
(d) Nothing in this section requires the Department of Justice to disclose information contained in records maintained under Section 11169 or under the regulations promulgated pursuant to Section 11174, except as otherwise provided in this article.
(e) This section shall not be interpreted to allow disclosure of any reports or records relevant to the reports of child abuse if the disclosure would be prohibited by any other provisions of state or federal law applicable to the reports or records relevant to the reports of child abuse.
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