ACL 07-27: Child Welfare Services Criminal Record Checks (10/30/07)

The letter implements AB 1774, and clarifies for whom and how a county child welfare agency or probation department obtains state and federal level criminal history information as part of the process of assessing a relative or nonrelative extended family member for placement. These primarily are technical changes.

The decision whether to seek to obtain the parent’s or legal guardian’s criminal history is made on a case-by-case basis, and the information may only be obtained if the parent or legal guardian has agreed to submit fingerprints for this purpose as part of the family reunification case plan. Only criminal record history that occurred subsequent to the removal of the child can be considered. In addition, once the Department of Justice (DOJ) has provided the criminal record history, a request for subsequent arrest notification cannot be made. In order to obtain a criminal record history, the county child welfare agency or probation department must submit Live Scan fingerprint transactions to the DOJ. [Download]