Opinion ID: 2395712
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The confidentiality of child neglect proceedings.

Text: The father asserts that T.W.'s appearance on the Wednesday's Child program is proscribed by certain statutes and rules of court providing for the confidentiality of child neglect proceedings. We do not believe that any of these restrictions on disclosure can reasonably be viewed as having any application to the case before us. We think it important to emphasize that the disclosure authorized by the trial judge's order, which we have quoted on page 4, supra, is very limited. As the motions division pointed out in denying the father's application for a stay, that order permits DHS to reveal only minimal biographical information, without identifying either T.W. or the father. A person who tunes in on Wednesday's Child will learn only T.W.'s first name and not his full identity. The viewer will also see what T.W. looks like, learn something of this five-year-old's interests, and ascertain that the boy may be available for adoption. The audience will learn nothing about T.W.'s family, and his status as a neglected child will not be revealed. T.W.'s father is thus complaining of a prospective telecast which will not identify the father or disclose anything about him. Given the father's complete lack of contact with his son during the first five years of T.W.'s life, there is little, if any, possibility that the viewer will be able to associate the child on the screen with his biological father. No adoption can be consummated unless prospective adoptive parents are first apprised of some basic information about a child or children. It is this kind of basic information that the Wednesday's Child program will provide to its audience under the trial judge's carefully crafted order. The disclosure to individual prospective adoptive families of limited information about a child is surely the norm. If it were not, the adoption process would soon come to an unceremonious halt. The responsibility of DHS to attempt to find adoptive parents for a neglected child obviously requires some limited initial introduction to them of the prospective adoptee. The notion that, under these hypothetical circumstances, DHS is barred from telling an interested family the child's first name, or from displaying the child's photograph, is contrary to common sense. Such a prohibition would undermine the agency's legal authority to act in the interest of neglected children. T.W.'s appearance on Wednesday's Child would, of course, be viewed by more people than an introduction to an individual family would reach. Nevertheless, this situation is indistinguishable in principle from the agency's routine interaction with an individual prospective adoptive family. The information made available to viewers through the television program would be insufficient to identify T.W. or his parents. It could do no more than pique their interest in the possibility of adopting T.W. If, and only if, a family that viewed the program expressed such an interest, then more extensive information about the child might be provided. Such additional information would not, however, differ from that routinely made available to families that have given active consideration to adopting a particular child. The confidentiality statutes and rules on which the father places reliance are limited in scope. They render confidential only judicial records and proceedings, [3] records compiled by District of Columbia agencies responsible for the welfare of neglected children, [4] and information acquired by DHS staff. [5] These provisions do not, by their terms, proscribe the limited disclosure authorized in this case by the trial judge. T.W.'s appearance on the screen, and the revelation of his first name, largely reflect what is already in the public domain, for everyone who has contact with T.W. knows what he looks like and what he is called. [6] The Wednesday's Child program would result in little, if any, disclosure of the contents of confidential records, and although the fact of T.W.'s potential adoptability would be revealed, a viewer who did not already know T.W. would not learn T.W.'s identity. By order of the Superior Court, DHS has legal custody of T.W., and therefore has both the authority and the legal duty to speak and decide for him in furtherance of his best interest. T.W.'s GAL was appointed for the express purpose of representing T.W.'s interests before the courts. DHS and the GAL both support T.W.'s appearance on Wednesday's Child. The confidentiality provisions, like the child neglect statute as a whole, were designed primarily to promote the best interests of neglected (and delinquent) children. See, e.g., District of Columbia v. Cooper, 483 A.2d 317, 323 (D.C.1984). [O]ther interests may require the veil of secrecy to be lifted, id. at 322, and the enhancement of T.W.'s chances for adoption is assuredly such an interest, especially where, as here, the disclosure permitted by the court is so limited in scope. T.W.'s right to confidentiality, like other rights, can be waived in his own interest, and the trial court is not precluded by the confidentiality statutes and rules from authorizing DHS to take, on T.W.'s behalf, actions which T.W., if he were of age, would surely have the right to take for himself. [7] Remedial child neglect legislation should not be construed to deprive the court of the use of effective tools to assist a neglected child to find a suitable adoptive family. Cf. O.L., supra, 584 A.2d at 1233. Finally, any prejudice to the father is minimal or nonexistent. We agree with the District that [t]his broadcast was not likely to reveal any confidential information about [the] father.... Any marginal embarrassment or harm to [the father's] reputation that any broadcast would occasion... was plainly outweighed by the interest of T.W. in finding a home that neither his father nor his mother has ever provided him.