Major Federal Legislation Index and Search

Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006
P.L. 109-248

Overview

H.R. 4472
Enacted July 27, 2006
Purpose: To protect children from sexual exploitation and violent crime; to prevent child abuse and child pornography, with an emphasis on comprehensive strategies across Federal, State, and local communities to prevent sex offenders access to children; to promote internet safety; and to honor the memory of Adam Walsh and other child crime victims

Major Provisions of the Act

  • Required (1) fingerprint-based checks of the national crime information databases for prospective foster or adoptive parents and (2) checks of State child abuse and neglect registries in which the prospective foster or adoptive parents and any other adults living in the home have resided in the preceding 5 years
  • Permitted States that prior to September 30, 2005, had opted out of the criminal background checks until October 1, 2008, to comply with the fingerprint-based background check requirement (no State is exempt from those requirements after October 1, 2008)
  • Required States to comply with any request for a child abuse registry check that is received from another State
  • Required States to have in place safeguards to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of information in any child abuse and neglect registry maintained by the State and to prevent any such information from being used for a purpose other than conducting background checks in foster or adoptive placement cases
  • Required the U.S. Attorney General, upon the request of a State, to conduct fingerprint-based checks of the national crime information databases to assist the following:
    • Child welfare agencies in checking backgrounds of individuals under consideration as prospective foster or adoptive parents or in investigating child abuse or neglect incidents
    • Private or public schools or educational agencies in checking backgrounds of prospective employees
  • Directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services to take the following actions:
    • Create a national registry of substantiated cases of child abuse or neglect
    • Establish standards for the dissemination of information in the registry
    • Conduct a study on the feasibility of establishing data-collection standards for the registry