§49-2-809. Reporting procedures.

(a) Reports of child abuse and neglect pursuant to this article shall be made immediately to the Bureau for Social Services. Reports of child abuse and neglect shall be made to the Bureau of Social Services via a 24-hour, seven-day-a week hotline (centralized intake) that shall be maintained by the Bureau of Social Services to receive calls reporting suspected or known child abuse or neglect or such reports may be made via web-based reporting (email, electronic fax, fillable form, or other electronic form) that sends the reports to a live person to handle the reports immediately. Both systems shall give the reporter a specific case identifier immediately upon making a report.

(b) If a report of child abuse and neglect is made in any fashion other than specified in subsection (a) of this section, then Bureau of Social Services is still required to act upon such report as if the report were made to centralized intake.

(c) A copy of any report of serious physical abuse, sexual abuse, or assault shall be forwarded by the department to the appropriate law-enforcement agency, the prosecuting attorney, or the coroner or medical examiner’s office. All reports under this article are confidential. Reports of known or suspected institutional child abuse or neglect shall be made and received as all other reports made pursuant to this article.

(d) The department shall annually submit a report in an electronic format, via the legislative webpage, on July 1 to the Joint Committee on Government and Finance, which shall contain: How many calls were made to centralized intake on a per county basis, how many calls were referred to centralized intake on a per county basis, how many calls were screened out centralized intake on a per county basis, and the time from referral to investigation on a per county basis.

(e) All reports made to centralized intake by email, fax, fillable form, or other electronic form from a reporter, shall be retained in the Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System in its original format for at least 12 months.

(f) Audio files recorded from reports made to centralized intake shall be retained in the Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System for at least 12 months.

(g) Any such person receiving a report pursuant to subsection (b) of this section shall make a written record in the Comprehensive Child Welfare Information system detailing the report and retain that record in an appropriate format for a period of at least 12 months.