Establishment and Maintenance of Central Registries for Child Abuse or Neglect Reports - Illinois

Establishment

Citation: Comp. Stat. Ch. 325, § 5/7.7

The Department of Children and Family Services shall maintain a central register of all suspected child abuse or neglect.

Purpose

Citation: Comp. Stat. Ch. 325, § 5/7.7

The register shall enable the department to do the following:

• Immediately identify and locate prior reports of child abuse or neglect 
• Continuously monitor the current status of all reports 
• Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of laws and programs through the development and analysis of statistical and other information

Contents

Citation: Comp. Stat. Ch. 325, §§ 5/7.7; 5/7.8; 5/7.15

The central register shall record all initial, preliminary, and final reports. The names and other identifying data and the dates and the circumstances of any persons requesting or receiving information from the central register shall be entered in the register record.

The central register may contain other information that the department determines is necessary to further the purposes of this act.

Maintenance

Citation: Comp. Stat. Ch. 325, §§ 5/7.7; 5/7.15

The department shall maintain the following in the central register:

• A listing of unfounded reports where the subject of the unfounded report requests that the record not be expunged because the subject alleges an intentionally false report was made
• A listing of unfounded reports where the report was classified as a priority 1 or priority 2 report in accordance with the department's rules or the report was made by a mandated reporter 
• All unfounded reports for a minimum of 5 years following the date of the final finding

If an individual is the subject of a subsequent investigation that is pending, the department shall maintain all prior unfounded reports pertaining to that individual until the pending investigation has been completed or for 5 years, whichever time ends later.

The department may amend or remove appropriate records from the central register upon good cause shown and upon notice to the report's subjects and the Child Protective Services Unit.