Chapter VIII:Protective Services 1426 -Central Registry

CHANGE # 02-2011

OCTOBER 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION

II. PURPOSE

III. REPORTING TO THE CENTRAL REGISTRY

IV. CONFIDENTIALITY OF THE CENTRAL REGISTRY

V. DSS-5104 FORM COMPLETION: FIELDS AND CODES

I. INTRODUCTION

North Carolina G.S. § 7B-311 requires the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to maintain a Central Registry of child abuse and neglect cases. DHHS shall also maintain in the Central Registry dependency cases and child fatalities that are the result of alleged maltreatment. This statute makes it mandatory for the county Director of Social Services to report to the Central Registry all cases of child abuse, neglect, and dependency accepted for CPS assessment as discussed in Section 1408 of this chapter. DHHS shall also maintain a Responsible Individuals List (RIL), which is a list of individuals determined to be responsible for the abuse, serious neglect or any combination provided at least one of the finding is abuse or serious neglect. Information from the RIL may be released to specific authorized users for the sole purpose of determining the fitness of an individual to care for (foster parent applications) or adopt children. DHHS shall establish a process for that affords the alleged responsible individual sufficient notice, or due process, to challenge the placement of their name on the RIL. Please refer to Section 1427 for detailed information regarding the RIL. Reports not accepted for CPS Assessment because they do not meet the definition of abuse, neglect, or dependency is currently exempt from the Central Registry reporting requirement. The statute also requires that reports in the Central Registry be kept confidential under rules established by the Social Services Commission (10 A. N.C.A.C. 70 A.0102).