Review and Expunction of Central Registries and Reporting Records - Iowa
Right of the Reported Person to Review and Challenge Records
Citation: Ann. Stat. § 235A.19
A subject of a child abuse report shall have the right to examine report data and disposition data that refers to the subject.
Within 90 days of the date of the notice of the results of a child abuse assessment, the subject of a child abuse report may file with the Department of Health and Human Services a written statement to the effect that report data and disposition data referring to the subject are in whole or in part erroneous and may request a correction of those data or of the findings of the child abuse assessment report.
The department shall provide the subject with an opportunity for a contested case hearing to correct the data or the findings unless the department corrects the data or findings as requested. The department may defer the hearing until the conclusion of the adjudicatory phase of a pending juvenile or district court case relating to the data or findings.
The subject of a child abuse report may appeal the decision resulting from a hearing to the district court. Immediately upon appeal, the court shall order the department to file with the court a certified copy of the report data or disposition data.
Upon the request of the appellant, the record and evidence in such cases shall be closed to all but the court and its officers, and access to the record and evidence shall be prohibited unless otherwise ordered by the court. The clerk shall maintain a separate docket for such actions.
Whenever the department corrects or eliminates data as requested or as ordered by the court, the department shall advise all persons who have received the incorrect data of that fact. Upon application to the court and service of notice on the department, any subject of a child abuse report may request and obtain a list of all persons who have received report data or disposition data referring to the subject.
When Records Must Be Expunged
Citation: Ann. Stat. § 235A.18
Report and disposition data relating to a particular case of alleged child abuse shall be sealed 10 years after the initial placement of the data in the registry unless good cause be shown why the data should remain open to authorized access. If a subsequent report of alleged child abuse involving the same child or the same person named in the data as having abused a child is received within this 10-year period, or within the period in which the person's name is in the central registry, the data shall be sealed 10 years after receipt of the subsequent report unless good cause be shown why the data should remain open to authorized access.
Notwithstanding the paragraph above, a person named in the initial data placed in the registry as having abused a child shall have the person's name removed from the registry after 10 years, if not previously removed from the registry pursuant to the other provisions of this section, if that person has not had a subsequent case of alleged abuse that resulted in the person's name being placed in the registry as the person responsible for the abuse within the 10-year period.
A person named in the initial data placed in the registry as having abused a child shall have the person's name removed from the registry after 5 years if the department determined in the report and disposition data that the person committed child abuse as defined in § 232.68(2)(a)(1) (physical abuse), (4) (neglect), or (6) (prenatal drug exposure).
The subparagraph above shall not apply, and the name of a person named in the initial data as having abused a child shall remain in the registry for 10 years, if the department determined in the initial report and disposition data that the person committed child abuse as defined in § 232.68(2)(a)(1), (4), or (6), and the child abuse resulted in the child's death or a serious injury.