I 
108TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5219
To require the Attorney General to establish a Federal register of cases 
of child abuse or neglect. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 5, 2004
Mrs. KELLY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To require the Attorney General to establish a Federal 
register of cases of child abuse or neglect.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds as follows: 
(1) The Report and Recommendations of the 
Westchester County, New York, January ‘‘B’’ 2004 
Grand Jury, entitled ‘‘Returning Abused Children to 
their Abusers: How Westchester County’s Child Pro-
tective System Fails the Children it Most Needs to 
Protect’’, identified 3 essential principles that should
guide child services programs, namely, maintaining 
that the best interest of the child is paramount, en-
suring continuity in case supervision with all rel-
evant parties involved and all relevant information 
shared, and assigning special priority to the identi-
fication of high-risk cases. 
(2) Such report also observed that, because 
there is no direct way for the State of New York to 
report an individual’s history of child abuse to an-
other State, and a child may be placed at greater 
risk if an offender with an established history of 
child abuse moves to a State where his or her his-
tory is unknown, a national central register of cases 
of child abuse or neglect must be created. 
(3) 896,000 children were determined to be vic-
tims of child abuse or neglect in 2002. 
(4) The rate of victimization per 1,000 children 
in the national population has dropped from 13.4 
children in 1990 to 12.3 children in 2002. 
(5) 1,400 children died due to child abuse or 
neglect in 2002. 
(6) A 2002 Department of Health and Human 
Services child and family services review suggests 
that difficulties States experience in preventing mal-
treatment recurrence may be due to inadequate 
identification of abusers. 
(7) When an individual is convicted of a crime 
in New York, police in California know and are able 
to identify the violator. Child abusers should be as 
easily identifiable for State and local child protective 
services. 
(8) Many States currently maintain a child 
maltreatment registry that collects information 
about maltreated children and individuals who were 
found to have abused or neglected children, in order 
to protect children from contact with individuals who 
may mistreat them. 
(9) Some States that maintain such registries 
are explicitly prohibited under State law from shar-
ing this important data with other States. 
SEC. 2. NATIONAL REGISTER OF CASES OF CHILD ABUSE 
OR NEGLECT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General shall create 
a national register of cases of child abuse or neglect. The 
information in such register shall be supplied by States, 
or, at the option of a State, by political subdivisions of 
such State. 
(b) INFORMATION.—The register described in sub-
section (a) shall collect in a central electronic database in-
formation on children reported to a State, or a political 
subdivision of a State, as abused or neglected. 
(c) SCOPE OF INFORMATION.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—
(A) TREATMENT OF REPORTS.—The infor-
mation to be provided to the Attorney General 
under this section shall relate to substantiated 
reports of child abuse or neglect. Except as pro-
vided in subparagraph (B), each State, or, at 
the option of a State, each political subdivision 
of such State, shall determine whether the in-
formation to be provided to the Attorney Gen-
eral under this section shall also relate to re-
ports of suspected instances of child abuse or 
neglect that were unsubstantiated or deter-
mined to be unfounded. 
(B) EXCEPTION.—If a State or political 
subdivision of a State has an equivalent elec-
tronic register of cases of child abuse or neglect 
that it maintains pursuant to a requirement or 
authorization under any other provision of law, 
the information provided to the Attorney Gen-
eral under this section shall be coextensive with 
that in such register.
(2) FORM.—Information provided to the Attor-
ney General under this section—
(A) shall be in a standardized electronic 
form determined by the Attorney General; and 
(B) shall contain case-specific identifying 
information, except that, at the option of the 
entity supplying the information, the confiden-
tiality of identifying information concerning an 
individual initiating a report or complaint re-
garding a suspected or known instance of child 
abuse or neglect may be maintained. 
(d) CONSTRUCTION.—This section shall not be con-
strued to require a State or political subdivision of a State 
to modify—
(1) an equivalent register of cases of child 
abuse or neglect that it maintains pursuant to a re-
quirement or authorization under any other provi-
sion of law; or 
(2) any other record relating to child abuse or 
neglect, regardless of whether the report of abuse or 
neglect was substantiated, unsubstantiated, or deter-
mined to be unfounded. 
(e) DISSEMINATION.—The Attorney General shall es-
tablish standards for the dissemination of information in 
the national register of cases of child abuse or neglect.
Such standards shall preserve the confidentiality of 
records in order to protect the rights of the child and the 
child’s parents or guardians while also ensuring that Fed-
eral, State, and local government entities have access to 
such information in order to carry out their responsibil-
ities under law to protect children from abuse and neglect. 
(f) CONDITION ON RECEIPT OF FUNDS.—Compliance 
under this section shall be a condition precedent to receipt 
of funds under section 107 of the Child Abuse Prevention 
and Treatment Act (42 U.S.C. 5106c).
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