A.  The secretary of the Department of Children and Family Services shall create an automated state case registry of child support orders within the office of children and family services, child support enforcement section.

B.  The automated state case registry of child support orders, hereinafter referred to as the “state case registry”, shall contain records with respect to each case in which services are being provided by the child support enforcement section and each support order established or modified in the state on or after October 1, 1998.

C.(1)  The state shall use the state case registry herein to extract information from, to share and compare information with, and to receive information from other databases and information comparison services. Such information comparison activities shall include the federal case registry of child support orders, federal parent locator services, temporary family assistance and Medicaid agencies, intrastate and interstate information comparisons, and any other entities required by federal law.

(2)  The department shall implement procedures to safeguard any confidential information contained in the state case registry, including the following:

(a)  Safeguards against the unauthorized use or disclosure of information relating to paternity, child support, or child custody proceedings.

(b)  Prohibitions against disclosure of the whereabouts of a party or child to a party against whom a protective order was entered with respect to that party or child.

(c)  Prohibitions against the release of information if the department has reason to believe that such disclosure of the whereabouts of a party or child may result in physical or emotional harm to that party or child.

(d)(i)  If the department discloses information to a court, the department shall advise the court if there is reasonable evidence of domestic violence or child abuse perpetrated against a person or child who is the subject of the inquiry.

(ii)  The court shall determine whether or not disclosure to the requesting party would likely result in physical or emotional harm to the person or child who is the subject of the inquiry. If the court determines that such disclosure would likely result in harm to that person or child, the court shall not disclose the information.

D.  Clerks of court in the state’s judicial districts shall provide the required information to the child support enforcement section for use in developing the state case registry.  The court shall require the parties, or the attorneys representing the parties, to provide the required information to the clerks of court.  The Department of Children and Family Services shall enter into cooperative agreements with clerks of court to provide for reimbursement of the actual costs of collecting and transmitting the information required by this Section.

E.  The Department of Children and Family Services shall develop and distribute the forms which shall be used to obtain the information.  Such forms shall contain, at a minimum, the data elements identified by the secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

F.  Except as provided herein, information contained in the state case registry shall be made available as public records in accordance with law.

Acts 1997, No. 391, §1; Acts 1999, No. 213, §1; Acts 2012, No. 255, §7.