Preamble

Children who have suffered from abuse and neglect often are harmed by the confidentiality laws and policies originally intended to protect them. Far too often, information is withheld from those who need to help the child such as judges, children’s legal representatives, and most importantly, agencies and individuals caring for these children and their families. The following principles are designed to remedy these adverse unintended consequences and promote the safety and well-being of maltreated children.

General Principles

I. When, in child abuse/neglect cases, matters relating to child safety conflict with matters relating to family privacy, child safety must prevail.

II. An “open” process is far more likely than a closed one to promote accountability and improved performance by all professional participants in child abuse/neglect related juvenile court actions, foster care systems, and child protective services, which in turn will enhance the probability that families and children served by these entities will receive appropriate treatment and protection.

III. For families and children to receive appropriate treatment and protection in child abuse/neglect cases, all parties including the courts, agencies and individuals with responsibility for making decisions or providing services must have access to all necessary and useful information pertinent to their responsibilities.

IV. Public child welfare agencies should be permitted to comment on child abuse/neglect cases in which a family served by them has provided information about the agency’s handling of their family’s case to the media, or where details about the agency’s case handling have been released to the media through other lawful means.

V. Access to personally identifying information in a child abuse/neglect case must be controlled on a strict need-to-know child protection responsibility basis. Only the minimum identifiable information necessary should be made available.

VI. Individuals receiving personally identifying information to fulfill their responsibilities in child abuse/neglect cases have an obligation to protect the confidentiality of this information and prevent its redisclosure.

VII. When an individual child or family in a child abuse/neglect case expressly states that they do not want personal information divulged, their wish should be respected unless failure to disclose could adversely affect the safety of a child.

VIII. Research regarding the performance of child welfare agencies, including the outcomes achieved for children and families in child abuse/neglect cases, helps to promote reform of the system and should be financially supported.

Specific Principles

I. Any court, agency or individual with legal responsibility for the care of a child with an open child abuse/neglect case has a right to information about services provided to the child and family, the progress made as a result of those services, and the prognosis for their achieving successful functioning.

II. Juvenile court hearings in child abuse/neglect cases should be presumptively open, with judicial discretion to close based on the best interests of the child and/or at the request of the child’s lawyer/representative. Sixteen (16) states now permit such “open courts.” The media shall follow professional standards of ethics to ensure the privacy of juveniles and their families involved in these proceedings, including the withholding of identifying information.

III. When an agency serving a family member in a child abuse/neglect case has information which could bear upon the safety or well-being of a child, it is required to share that information with other entities such as courts and agencies with legal custody which have decision- making responsibility over that child.

IV. Once details of an individual child abuse/neglect case have become public through lawful means, the child welfare agency is permitted, at a minimum, to publicly confirm or deny the key facts of the case and to correct misstatements. Public child welfare agencies can adhere to the same standards as other agencies such as law enforcement, coroners and the judiciary in the release of information once those agencies have acted. If families have gone public, the public agency may respond.

V. Anyone receiving confidential information as a result of his or her role in a child abuse/neglect case may not further disclose the information unless he or she is permitted or required by law to share it and/or it could affect the safety of the child.

VI. No restriction on confidentiality in child abuse/neglect cases shall be interpreted to prohibit or restrict the conduct of government fiscal and program audits, program monitoring and oversight, evaluations carried out by a public agency, evaluations carried out under contract with a public agency or evaluations ordered by the legislative branch, provided that those conducting the audit, monitoring, or evaluation operate under the same confidentiality restrictions as those providing direct services to the participants.

VII. Federal law should give clear authority and a motivation, for local CPS agencies investigating reports of child abuse/neglect, or making determinations regarding removal/reunification of an abused/neglected child from the home, to have instant caseworker access to criminal history records (as well as civil orders of protection) on any adult regularly in the child's home, not just the biological parent(s).