Child abuse reporting.

Existing law requires the Department of Justice 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 of Justice 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 to the department fingerprint images and related information of employment and volunteer candidates for the purpose of obtaining information as to the existence and nature of any 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 his or her own recognizance pending trial. Existing law requires the department to charge a fee sufficient to cover the cost of processing the requests for state- and federal-level criminal offender record information. This bill would instead prohibit the department from charging a fee for state-level criminal offender record information.