Request By:
Ms. Lisa Aug
The Winchester Sun
200 Wall Street
P.O. Box 747
Winchester, Kentucky 40391
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General interpreting KRS 199.335(9) which reads as follows:
"All information obtained by the bureau or its delegated representative, as a result of investigation made pursuant to this section shall not be divulged to anyone except:
(a) persons suspected of neglect or abuse, provided that in such cases names of informants may be withheld, unless ordered by the court;
(b) persons within the bureau with a legitimate interest or responsibility related to the case;
(c) other medical, psychological, or social service agencies, or law enforcement agencies that have a legitimate interest in the case;
(d) cases where a court orders release of such information."
KRS 199.335 is commonly referred to as the "Battered Child Act" . You state that you have requested the Clark County office of the Bureau of Social Services in the Department for Human Resources to confirm or deny that it received child abuse reports on Rose Ellen Jones, age 4, who died November 12 at the University of Kentucky Medical Center. You requested specifically confirmation that such complaints were registered on October 12 and October 22, and you also asked for information as to any other reports received on Rose Jones. You further state: "At the present time I am not interested in the results of any investigations made in the case; I am simply interested in confirming the fact that complaints were received. Such information, I believe, is not covered by the restrictions of KRS 199.335 § 9".
We believe that included in the legislative intent of the "Battered Child Act" is the intent that the act be interpreted and administered in such a manner so as to give maximum encouragement to the reporting of suspected incidences of child abuse. KRS 199.335(6) provides as follows:
"Anyone acting upon reasonable cause in the making of a report pursuant to this section, KRS 530.060, 530.070, (4)(5) of 208.020 and (4)(5) of KRS 208.990 shall have immunity from any liability, civil or criminal, that might otherwise be incurred or imposed. Any such participant shall have the same immunity with respect to participation in any such judicial proceeding resulting from such report."
We believe that no interpretation should be made of the statutes which would inhibit persons having knowledge of a case of child abuse from reporting such knowledge to the authorities. We, therefore, believe that all facts connected with the report of child abuse, even the fact that a report was made, should be kept confidential. It is our opinion that the Bureau of Social Services acted within the letter and the spirit of the statutes in refusing to divulge the information as to whether it received reports of child abuse concerning Rose Ellen Jones.
The Open Records Law exempts from mandatory public disclosure records or information the disclosure of which is prohibited or restricted or otherwise made confidential by enactment of the General Assembly. KRS 61.878(1)(j). Information on reports of child abuse is so restricted and made confidential by the statutes cited in this opinion.