No. SB 1146
Filed under Local Government.
Public Records/Recordings of Protective Investigations; Providing an exemption from public records requirements for recordings of interviews conducted as part of a protective investigation by the Department of Children and Families; authorizing the release of such recordings to certain persons; providing for future legislative review and repeal of the exemption; providing a statement of public necessity, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDRecordings of interviews conducted during Department of Children and Families protective investigations into suspected child abuse, abandonment, or neglect become confidential and exempt from public records requests and from the state constitution's right of access.
Access is limited to two channels: other investigators working a protective investigation, who must keep it confidential themselves, and the child's caregiver, but only in a judicial proceeding and only absent a contrary court order.
Because the release rule says "the caregiver," not "a non-offending caregiver," a caregiver who is themselves the subject of the abuse investigation is not automatically excluded from obtaining the recording in a judicial proceeding.
This exemption only takes effect if a companion measure, SB 1144, which would create the underlying recording requirement, passes in the same legislative session and becomes law.
AIRecordings of interviews conducted during a Department of Children and Families protective investigation become both confidential and exempt from public records requests and from the constitutional right of access, a stronger shield than exemption alone.
AIAllows the caregiver of the child subject to the investigation to obtain a recording upon request connected to a judicial proceeding, unless a court order says otherwise, with no exclusion written for a caregiver who is the subject of the investigation.
AIPermits a copy of a recording to be released only to DCF personnel conducting a protective investigation, who must keep it confidential themselves, or to the child's caregiver in connection with a judicial proceeding.
AIThe confidentiality and exemption is subject to the Open Government Sunset Review Act and automatically repeals five years after taking effect unless the Legislature reviews and reenacts it first.