42 USC 5104 - National clearinghouse for information relating to child abuse

(a) Establishment
The Secretary shall through the Department, or by one or more contracts of not less than 3 years duration let through a competition, establish a national clearinghouse for information relating to child abuse.

(b) Functions
The Secretary shall, through the clearinghouse established by subsection (a) of this section

(1) maintain, coordinate, and disseminate information on all effective programs, including private and community-based programs, that show promise of success with respect to the prevention, assessment, identification, and treatment of child abuse and neglect and hold the potential for broad scale implementation and replication;

(2) maintain information about the best practices used for achieving improvements in child protective systems;

(3) maintain and disseminate information relating to

(A) the incidence of cases of child abuse and neglect in the United States;

(B) the incidence of such cases in populations determined by the Secretary under section 105(a)(1) of the Child Abuse Prevention, Adoption, and Family Services Act of 1988; and

(4) provide technical assistance upon request that may include an evaluation or identification of

(A) various methods and procedures for the investigation, assessment, and prosecution of child physical and sexual abuse cases;

(B) ways to mitigate psychological trauma to the child victim; and

(5) collect and disseminate information relating to various training resources available at the State and local level to

(A) individuals who are engaged, or who intend to engage, in the prevention, identification, and treatment of child abuse and neglect; and

(B) appropriate State and local officials to assist in training law enforcement, legal, judicial, medical, mental health, education, and child welfare personnel.

(1) In general
In establishing a national clearinghouse as required by subsection (a) of this section, the Secretary shall

(A) consult with other Federal agencies that operate similar clearinghouses;

(B) consult with the head of each agency involved with child abuse and neglect and mechanisms for the sharing of such information among other Federal agencies and clearinghouses on the development of the components for information collection and management of such clearinghouse;

(C) develop a Federal data system involving the elements under subsection (b) of this section which, to the extent practicable, coordinates existing Federal, State, regional, and local child welfare data systems which shall include

(i) standardized data on false, unfounded, unsubstantiated, and substantiated reports; and

(ii) information on the number of deaths due to child abuse and neglect;

(D) through a national data collection and analysis program and in consultation with appropriate State and local agencies and experts in the field, collect, compile, and make available State child abuse and neglect reporting information which, to the extent practical, shall be universal and case specific and integrated with other case-based foster care and adoption data collected by the Secretary;

(E) compile, analyze, and publish a summary of the research conducted under section 5105 (a) of this title;

(F) collect and disseminate information that describes best practices being used throughout the Nation for making appropriate referrals related to, and addressing, the physical, developmental, and mental health needs of abused and neglected children; and

(G) solicit public comment on the components of such clearinghouse.

(2) Confidentiality requirement
In carrying out paragraph (1)(D), the Secretary shall ensure that methods are established and implemented to preserve the confidentiality of records relating to case specific data.