Georgia Code
Article 2 - Child Abuse Records
§ 49-5-41. Persons and Agencies Permitted Access to Records

(A.1) Any part of a record of the department or a governmental child protective agency that includes information provided by law enforcement or prosecution agencies in any pending investigation or prosecution of criminal activity contained within the child abuse, neglect, or dependency records;
(10.1) Any school official of a school that a child who was the subject of a report of suspected child abuse made pursuant to Code Section 19-7-5 attends in which there is an ongoing investigation of the reported abuse. Any such ongoing investigation shall include contact with such school to obtain any relevant information from school personnel regarding the report of suspected child abuse;
History. Ga. L. 1975, p. 1135, § 2; Ga. L. 1990, p. 1778, § 2; Ga. L. 1991, p. 1320, §§ 1-3; Ga. L. 1993, p. 979, § 2; Ga. L. 1993, p. 1712, § 2; Ga. L. 1994, p. 967, §§ 1, 2; Ga. L. 1996, p. 1143, § 1; Ga. L. 1997, p. 844, § 4; Ga. L. 1998, p. 609, § 5; Ga. L. 2000, p. 243, § 3; Ga. L. 2001, p. 4, § 49; Ga. L. 2002, p. 861, § 1; Ga. L. 2003, p. 497, § 1; Ga. L. 2004, p. 645, § 16; Ga. L. 2006, p. 72, § 49/SB 465; Ga. L. 2007, p. 478, § 8/SB 128; Ga. L. 2009, p. 43, §§ 2, 3/SB 79; Ga. L. 2009, p. 453, § 2-2/HB 228; Ga. L. 2010, p. 316, § 1/HB 303; Ga. L. 2013, p. 294, § 4-56/HB 242; Ga. L. 2014, p. 34, § 2-10/SB 365; Ga. L. 2015, p. 552, § 10/SB 138; Ga. L. 2015, p. 689, § 5/HB 17; Ga. L. 2015, p. 845, § 1/HB 177; Ga. L. 2016, p. 160, § 3/HB 725; Ga. L. 2016, p. 864, § 49/HB 737; Ga. L. 2017, p. 344, §§ 1, 2/HB 75; Ga. L. 2017, p. 345, § 1/SB 168; Ga. L. 2017, p. 774, § 49/HB 323; Ga. L. 2018, p. 1112, § 49/SB 365; Ga. L. 2020, p. 181, § 6/HB 993; Ga. L. 2021, p. 130, § 1/HB 548.
The 2013 amendment, effective January 1, 2014, in subsection (e), substituted “dependency records” for “deprivation records” in the introductory paragraph; substituted “Code Section 15-11-741” for “Code Section 15-11-171” in paragraph (e)(2); and substituted “Code Section 15-11-743” for “Code Section 15-11-173” in paragraph (e)(3). See Editor’s notes for applicability.
The 2014 amendment, effective July 1, 2014, rewrote subsections (a) and (e); and at the end of paragraph (c)(5), substituted “a protocol committee, as such term is defined in Code Section 19-15-1” for “a county child abuse protocol committee or task force.”
The 2015 amendments.
The first 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, in subsection (c), inserted “or her” and “or she” in paragraphs (1) and (3), substituted “department” for “Department of Human Services” in paragraph (2), and added paragraph (10.1); and added the last sentence in subsection (d). The second 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, added subsection (f). The third 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, added paragraph (a)(5.1).
The 2016 amendments.
The first 2016 amendment, effective July 1, 2016, rewrote subsections (a) and (f); and added subsection (g). The second 2016 amendment, effective May 3, 2016, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, revised punctuation in subparagraph (a)(6)(H) and revised language in subsection (f). See Editor’s notes regarding the effect of these amendments.
The 2017 amendments.
The first 2017 amendment, effective July 1, 2017, added subparagraph (a)(6)(A.1); in paragraph (e)(2), deleted “and” at the end of subparagraph (e)(2)(E), substituted “; or” for the period at the end of subparagraph (e)(2)(F), and added subparagraph (e)(2)(G). The second 2017 amendment, effective July 1, 2017, inserted “a licensed adoption agency of this or any other state which is placing a child for adoption,” in the middle of paragraph (c)(2); substituted “court appointed special advocate” for “Court Appointed Special Advocate” in the middle of paragraph (c)(5); deleted “or” at the end of paragraph (c)(11); substituted “; or” for a period at the end of paragraph (c)(12); and added paragraph (c)(13). The third 2017 amendment, effective May 9, 2017, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, revised punctuation in paragraph (a)(1) and division (a)(5)(C)(i), substituted “the commissioner” for “the commissioner of the department” near the beginning of paragraph (a)(10), and revised language throughout subsection (f).
The 2018 amendment, effective May 8, 2018, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, revised punctuation in the middle of paragraph (c)(5).
The 2020 amendment, effective July 1, 2020, deleted former paragraph (b)(3), which read: “Notwithstanding the provisions of this subsection, access to the child abuse registry created pursuant to Article 8 of this chapter shall not be permitted except as allowed by Article 8 of this chapter.”
The 2021 amendment, effective July 1, 2021, in subsection (a), deleted “and” at the end of paragraph (a)(10), substituted “; and” for a period at the end of subparagraph (a)(11)(C), and added paragraph (a)(12).
Cross references.
Investigation of instances of child abuse or neglect in custody disputes, § 19-9-4 .
Code Commission notes.
Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1993, a comma was inserted following “Lieutenant Governor” in paragraph (a)(10) (now (a)(9)).
Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2000, “complaint” was substituted for “compliant” in paragraph (e)(3).
Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2007, “and” was deleted from the end of paragraph (c)(10), and “; or” was substituted for a period at the end of paragraph (c)(11).
Editor’s notes.
Ga. L. 2013, p. 294, § 5-1/HB 242, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: “This Act shall become effective on January 1, 2014, and shall apply to all offenses which occur and juvenile proceedings commenced on and after such date. Any offense occurring before January 1, 2014, shall be governed by the statute in effect at the time of such offense and shall be considered a prior adjudication for the purpose of imposing a disposition that provides for a different penalty for subsequent adjudications, of whatever class, pursuant to this Act. The enactment of this Act shall not affect any prosecutions for acts occurring before January 1, 2014, and shall not act as an abatement of any such prosecutions.”
Ga. L. 2016, p. 160, § 1/HB 725, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: “This Act shall be known and may be cited as the ‘Child Abuse Records Protection Act.’”
Ga. L. 2016, p. 864, § 54(e)/HB 737, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: “In the event of a conflict between a provision in Sections 1 through 53 of this Act and a provision of another Act enacted at the 2016 regular session of the General Assembly, the provision of such other Act shall control over the conflicting provision in Sections 1 through 53 of this Act to the extent of the conflict.” Accordingly, the amendment to this Code section by Ga. L. 2016, p. 864, § 49/HB 737 was not given effect.
U.S. Code.
The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, referred to in this Code section, is codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1320 d et seq.
Law reviews.
For note on 1990 amendment of this Code section, see 7 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 268 (1990).
For note on 1991 amendment of this Code section, see 8 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 194 (1992).
For note on the 1994 amendment of this Code section, see 11 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 260 (1994).
For review of 1996 social services legislation, see 13 Ga. U. L. Rev. 307 (1996).
For note on the 2002 amendment of this Code section, see 19 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 331 (2002).
For article on the 2014 amendment of this Code section, see 31 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 25 (2014).