42 U.S.C. § 5104 : US Code - Section 5104: National clearinghouse for information relating to child abuse

Search 42 U.S.C. § 5104 : US Code - Section 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
(C) the incidence of any such cases related to alcohol or
drug abuse;
(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
(C) effective programs carried out by the States under this
subchapter and subchapter III of this chapter; 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.
(c) Coordination with available resources
(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.