Brief Description: Requiring release of court hearing information.

Sponsors: Representatives Kagi, Boldt, Dickerson, Delvin, Darneille, Pettigrew and Carrell.

Hearing Date: 1/27/04

Staff: Sonja Hallum (786-7092).

Background:

Juvenile, non-criminal records are confidential and may only be released in very limited circumstances. Some examples of records that are categorized as juvenile, non-criminal relate to child in need of services (CHINS), at-risk youth (ARY), dependency, termination, and truancy proceedings.

The prohibition against release of confidential records in these types of hearings has lead to some confusion as to whether the scheduling information for those hearings is also confidential. As a result, some courts in Washington are releasing scheduling information including court hearing dates, times, and locations for dependency and termination hearings that are open to the public while other courts are not releasing this information under the belief that this information is part of the court record and, as such, is confidential.

Summary of Bill:

Information pertaining to the date, time, and location of CHINS, ARY, dependency, termination, and truancy court hearings is not confidential and may be released to the public.

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Not requested.

Effective Date: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.