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Senate Bill 342
By: Senators Robertson of the 29th, Kirkpatrick of the 32nd, Jones II of the 22nd, Albers of
the 56th and Brass of the 28th
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
To amend Article 2 of Chapter 5 of Title 49 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated,
1
relating to child abuse records, so as to authorize the disclosure or use of information from2
child abuse and neglect registries by the Department of Human Services to locate, recover,3
or provide services to a child determined to be missing or a victim of sexual exploitation; to4
provide for access to records concerning reports of child abuse and missing or exploited5
children to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; to provide for related6
matters; to provide for an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.7
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:8
SECTION 1.9
Article 2 of Chapter 5 of Title 49 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to child10
abuse records, is amended by revising subsection (c) of Code Section 49-5-40, relating to11
definitions, confidentiality of records, and restricted access to records, as follows:12
"(c) Each and every record concerning child abuse or neglect which is received by the13
department from the child abuse and neglect registry of any other state shall not be14
disclosed or used outside the department for any other purpose other than conducting15
background checks to be used in foster care and adoptive placements.
or in locating,16
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recovering, or providing services to a child who is determined by the department to either17
be missing or the victim of sexual exploitation as defined in this Code section."18
SECTION 2.19
Said article is further amended in subsection (a) of Code Section 49-5-41, relating to persons20
and agencies permitted access to records, by deleting "and" at the end of paragraph (11),21
replacing the period at the end of paragraph (12) with "; and", and adding a new paragraph22
to read as follows:23
"(13) The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for the purpose of24
assisting in locating, recovering, or providing services to a child who is determined by25
the department to either be missing or the victim of sexual exploitation as defined in26
Code Section 49-5-40."27
SECTION 3.28
This Act shall become effective upon its approval by the Governor or upon its becoming law29
without such approval.30
SECTION 4.31
All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.32
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