(a) The Department shall establish and maintain a 24-hour statewide toll-free telephone report line operating at all times and capable of receiving all reports of alleged abuse and neglect of a child.

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Terms Used In Delaware Code Title 16 Sec. 905

  • Child: means any person who has not reached that person's own eighteenth birthday. See Delaware Code Title 16 Sec. 902
  • Death: means the loss of life of a child. See Delaware Code Title 16 Sec. 902
  • Department: means the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families. See Delaware Code Title 16 Sec. 902
  • Internal information system: means the Department's system of maintaining information related to all reports of abuse, neglect, investigations, family assessments, services and other relevant information. See Delaware Code Title 16 Sec. 902
  • Investigation: means the collection of evidence in response to a report of abuse, neglect, or risk of maltreatment of a child by a person responsible for that child's care, custody or control in order to determine if a child has been abused, neglected, or is at risk of maltreatment. See Delaware Code Title 16 Sec. 902
  • Investigation Coordinator: means an attorney licensed to practice law in this State employed by the Office of the Child Advocate, who is authorized to independently track each reported case of alleged child abuse or neglect within the Department's internal information system and who is responsible for monitoring each reported case involving the death of, serious physical injury to, or allegations of sexual abuse of a child from inception to final criminal and civil disposition. See Delaware Code Title 16 Sec. 902
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Multidisciplinary case: means a comprehensive investigation by the multidisciplinary team for any child abuse or neglect report involving death, serious physical injury, physical injury, human trafficking of a child, torture or sexual abuse, which if true, would constitute a criminal violation against a child, or an attempt to commit any such crime, even if no crime is ever charged. See Delaware Code Title 16 Sec. 902
  • Neglect: means as defined in § 901 of Title 10. See Delaware Code Title 16 Sec. 902
  • Physical injury: means as defined in § 1100 of Title 11. See Delaware Code Title 16 Sec. 902
  • Registry: means a collection of information as described in Subchapter II of this chapter about persons who have been substantiated for abuse or neglect as provided in Subchapter II of this chapter or who were substantiated between August 1, 1994, and February 1, 2003. See Delaware Code Title 16 Sec. 902
  • Report: means the communication of an allegation of child abuse or neglect to the Department pursuant to § 903 or § 905 of this title. See Delaware Code Title 16 Sec. 902
  • Sexual abuse: means as defined in § 901 of Title 10. See Delaware Code Title 16 Sec. 902

(b) The Department shall maintain a Child Protection Registry and an internal information system. The Department shall keep unsubstantiated reports in the internal information system.

(c) Every report of child abuse or neglect made to the Department shall be entered in the Department’s internal information system.

(d) Upon receipt of a report on any multidisciplinary case, the Department shall notify the appropriate law-enforcement agency and shall provide a detailed description of the report received. Notwithstanding any provision of the Delaware Code to the contrary, to the extent the law-enforcement agency with primary jurisdiction over the case is unable to assist, the primary law-enforcement agency may request another law-enforcement agency with jurisdiction to exercise such jurisdiction. Upon request, the other law-enforcement agency may exercise such jurisdiction.

(e) Although reports may be made anonymously, the Department shall in all cases, after obtaining relevant information regarding alleged abuse or neglect, request the name and address of any person making a report.

(f) Upon receipt of a report, the Department shall immediately communicate such report to its appropriate staff, after a check has been made with the internal information system to determine whether previous reports have been made regarding actual or suspected abuse or neglect of the subject child, or any reports regarding any siblings, family members, or the alleged perpetrator, and such information as may be contained from such previous reports. Such relevant information as may be contained in the internal information system must also be forwarded to the appropriate Department staff.

(g) Upon receipt of a report of death, serious physical injury or sexual abuse, or any other report requested by the Investigation Coordinator, the Department shall notify the Investigation Coordinator of the report, in sufficient detail to permit the Investigation Coordinator to undertake the Investigation Coordinator’s duties, as specified in § 906 of this title.

16 Del. C. 1953, § ?1004; 58 Del. Laws, c. 154; 60 Del. Laws, c. 494, § ?1; 64 Del. Laws, c. 108, § ?4; 68 Del. Laws, c. 440, § ?2; 70 Del. Laws, c. 186, § ?1; 71 Del. Laws, c. 199, § ?4; 73 Del. Laws, c. 412, §§ ?26, 27; 77 Del. Laws, c. 320, § ?3; 78 Del. Laws, c. 403, § ?3; 81 Del. Laws, c. 144, § ?5; 83 Del. Laws, c. 228, § 1;