14-3-213. Central registry of child protection cases; establishment; operation; amendment, expungement or removal of records; classification and expungement of reports; statement of person accused.

(a) The state agency shall establish and maintain a record of all child protection reports and a central registry of "under investigation" or "substantiated" child protection reports in accordance with W.S. 42-2-111.

(b) Through the recording of reports, the state agency's recordkeeping system shall be operated to enable the state agency to:

(i) Immediately identify and locate prior reports of cases of child abuse or neglect to assist in the diagnosis of suspicious circumstances and the assessment of the needs of the child and his family;

(ii) Continuously monitor the current status of all pending child protection cases;

(iii) Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of existing laws and programs through the development and analysis of statistical and other information; and

(iv) Maintain a central registry of "under investigation" reports and "substantiated" reports of child abuse or neglect for provision of information to qualifying applicants pursuant to W.S. 14-3-214(f).

(c) Upon good cause shown and upon notice to the subject of an "under investigation" or "substantiated" report, the state agency may list, amend, expunge or remove any record from the central registry in accordance with rules and regulations adopted by the state agency.

(d) All reports of child abuse or neglect contained within the central registry shall be classified in one (1) of the following categories:

(i) "Under investigation"; or

(ii) "Substantiated".

(iii) Repealed By Laws 2005, ch. 23, § 2.

(e) Within six (6) months all reports classified as "under investigation" shall be reclassified as "substantiated" or expunged from the central registry, unless the state agency is notified of an open criminal investigation or criminal prosecution. Unsubstantiated reports shall not be contained within the central registry.

(f) Any person named as a perpetrator of child abuse or neglect in any report maintained in the central registry which is classified as a substantiated report as defined in W.S. 14-3-202(a)(xi) shall have the right to have included in the report his statement concerning the incident giving rise to the report. Any person seeking to include a statement pursuant to this subsection shall provide the state agency with the statement. The state agency shall provide notice to any person identified as a perpetrator of his right to submit his statement in any report maintained in the central registry.