This text of Iowa § 235A.18 (Sealing and expungement of founded child abuse information) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.
1. Reportdataanddispositiondatarelatingtoaparticularcaseofallegedabusewhichhas
been determined to be founded child abuse and placed in the central registry in accordance
with section 232.71D shall be maintained in the registry as follows:
a.
(1)Report and disposition data relating to a particular case of alleged child abuse shall
be sealed ten years after the initial placement of the data in the registry unless good cause be
shown why the data should remain open to authorized access. If a subsequent report of an
alleged case of child abuse involving the child named in the initial data placed in the registry
as the victim of abuse or a person named in the data as having abused a child is received by
the department within this ten-year period, or within the period in which the person’s name
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1. Reportdataanddispositiondatarelatingtoaparticularcaseofallegedabusewhichhas
been determined to be founded child abuse and placed in the central registry in accordance
with section 232.71D shall be maintained in the registry as follows:
a. (1) Report and disposition data relating to a particular case of alleged child abuse shall
be sealed ten years after the initial placement of the data in the registry unless good cause be
shown why the data should remain open to authorized access. If a subsequent report of an
alleged case of child abuse involving the child named in the initial data placed in the registry
as the victim of abuse or a person named in the data as having abused a child is received by
the department within this ten-year period, or within the period in which the person’s name is
in the central registry, the data shall be sealed ten years after receipt of the subsequent report
unless good cause be shown why the data should remain open to authorized access. Report
and disposition data shall be made available to the department of justice if the department
requests access to the alleged child abuse records for purposes of review by the prosecutor’s
review committee or commitment of sexually violent predators under chapter 229A.
(2) Notwithstanding subparagraph (1), a person named in the initial data placed in the
registryashavingabusedachildshallhavetheperson’snameremovedfromtheregistryafter
ten years, if not previously removed from the registry pursuant to the other provisions of this
subsection, if that person has not had a subsequent case of alleged abuse which resulted in
the person’s name being placed in the registry as the person responsible for the abuse within
the ten-year period.
(3) (a) A person named in the initial data placed in the registry as having abused a child
shall have the person’s name removed from the registry after five years if the department
determined in the report and disposition data that the person committed child abuse as
defined in section 232.68, subsection 2, paragraph “a”, subparagraph (1), (4), or (6).
(b) Subparagraph division (a) shall not apply, and the name of a person named in
the initial data as having abused a child shall remain in the registry as described in
subparagraph (1), if the department determined in the initial report and disposition data that
the person committed child abuse as defined in section 232.68, subsection 2, paragraph “a”,
subparagraph (1), (4), or (6), and the child abuse resulted in the child’s death or a serious
injury.
b. Data sealed in accordance with this section shall be expunged eight years after the date
the data was sealed. However, if the report data and the disposition data involve child abuse
as defined in section 232.68, subsection 2, paragraph “a”, subparagraph (3) or (5), the data
shall not be expunged for a period of thirty years. Sealed data shall be made available to the
department of justice upon request if the prosecutor’s review committee is reviewing records
or if a prosecuting attorney has filed a petition to commit a sexually violent predator under
chapter 229A.
2. Thejuvenileordistrictcourtandcountyattorneyshallexpungechildabuseinformation
uponnoticefromtheregistry. Thesupremecourtshallprescriberulesestablishingtheperiod
of time child abuse information is retained by the juvenile and district courts. A county
attorney shall not retain child abuse information in excess of the time period the information
would be retained under the rules prescribed by the supreme court. Child abuse information
relating to a particular case of child abuse placed in the central registry that a juvenile or
district court determines is unfounded in a written finding based upon a preponderance of
evidence shall be expunged from the central registry.
3. The department shall adopt rules establishing the period of time child abuse
information which is not maintained in the central registry is retained by the department.