SB287 Summary

• Establishes legislative intent to protect parents' inherent right to allow children unsupervised time for activities like playing outside, walking to school, bicycling, and remaining briefly in vehicles or at home.

• Requires secondary review of Child Abuse Hotline reports by investigating agencies to ensure reports meet acceptance requirements and creates procedures allowing hotline staff to contact Department of Human Services for relevant information before accepting reports.

• Mandates investigative agencies administratively close investigations when allegations lack merit, including cases with insufficient detail, no corroborating evidence from anonymous reporters, or no additional abuse reports from the same alleged offender after preliminary investigation.

• Restricts placement on the Child Maltreatment Central Registry to offenders determined to pose a risk of maltreatment to vulnerable populations (children, elderly, persons with disabilities, persons with mental illness), requiring consideration of severity, nature of injury, offender access to vulnerable populations, prior substantiated findings, and criminal history.

• Repeals § 12-18-623 allowing closed investigations without full compliance with investigation requirements and adds administrative hearing procedures for challenging risk determinations and registry placement.