Committee approves changes to child‑abuse registry bill, advances measure out of committee

The Committee on Child Welfare and Foster Care voted to advance House Bill 2601, which would create a state central registry for substantiated child abuse and neglect reports, after adopting several amendments aimed at addressing technical and due‑process concerns.

Tanya Keyes, Deputy Secretary of the Department for Children and Families, told the committee she opposed the bill as introduced and raised three primary concerns: the bill’s proposed 12‑month appeal period, language allowing a district or county attorney to prompt placement on the registry at the time of petition, and a provision that she said could produce an automatic three‑year expungement. “There are 3, concerns with this bill,” Keyes said, and she asked the committee to remove or revise those provisions to preserve investigatory integrity and judicial discretion.

Representative Staffington offered a narrow amendment to reduce the 12‑month appeal window to 30 days; the amendment’s sponsor described it as a compromise to avoid unintended reunification harms. The committee adopted that change. The chair then offered a multi‑part amendment clarifying administrative phrasing (changing “alleged perpetrator” language to “has been alleged to have abused or neglected a child”), directing district attorneys to transmit petition information to the secretary so administrative proceedings can consider registry placement, and making expungement discretionary. The chair’s amendment added a checklist of factors the secretary must consider before granting expungement (nature and severity of the finding, number of substantiated reports, whether the applicant was a juvenile at the time of finding, and corrective actions taken) and required a secretary review after 20 years to identify possible additional expungements.

The committee adopted the chair’s package and then voted to report HB 2601 favorably as amended. The bill’s amendments also include a statutory replacement of existing registry rules and a sunset date for prior rules so the registry will be governed by the statute’s procedures once implemented.

What happens next: HB 2601 was reported favorably from committee as amended and will move to the floor for further consideration.

Sources: Deputy Secretary Tanya Keyes; Reviser (Jesse); Representative Staffington; committee proceedings.