16.1-300 - Confidentiality of Department records.
§ 16.1-300. Confidentiality of Department records.
A. The social, medical, psychiatric and psychological reports and records ofchildren who are or have been (i) before the court, (ii) under supervision,or (iii) receiving services from a court service unit or who are committed tothe Department of Juvenile Justice shall be confidential and shall be openfor inspection only to the following:
1. The judge, prosecuting attorney, probation officers and professional staffassigned to serve a court having the child currently before it in anyproceeding;
2. Any public agency, child welfare agency, private organization, facility orperson who is treating or providing services to the child pursuant to acontract with the Department or pursuant to the Virginia Juvenile CommunityCrime Control Act as set out in Article 12.1 (§ 16.1-309.2 et seq.) ofChapter 11 of this title;
3. The child's parent, guardian, legal custodian or other person standing inloco parentis and the child's attorney;
4. Any person who has reached the age of majority and requests access to hisown records or reports;
5. Any state agency providing funds to the Department of Juvenile Justice andrequired by the federal government to monitor or audit the effectiveness ofprograms for the benefit of juveniles which are financed in whole or in partby federal funds;
6. Any other person, agency or institution, including any law-enforcementagency, school administration, or probation office by order of the court,having a legitimate interest in the case, the juvenile, or in the work of thecourt;
7. Any person, agency or institution having a legitimate interest whenrelease of the confidential information is (i) for the provision of treatmentor rehabilitation services for the juvenile who is the subject of theinformation, (ii) when the requesting party has custody or is providingsupervision for a juvenile and the release of the confidential information isin the interest of maintaining security in a secure facility as defined by §16.1-228, or (iii) for consideration of admission to any group home,residential facility, or postdispositional facility, and copies of therecords in the custody of such home or facility shall be destroyed if thechild is not admitted to the home or facility;
8. Any attorney for the Commonwealth, any pretrial services officer, localcommunity-based probation officer and adult probation and parole officer forthe purpose of preparing pretrial investigation, including risk assessmentinstruments, presentence reports, including those provided in § 19.2-299,discretionary sentencing guidelines worksheets, including related riskassessment instruments, as directed by the court pursuant to subsection C of§ 19.2-298.01 or any court-ordered post-sentence investigation report;
9. Any person, agency, organization or institution outside the Departmentthat, at the Department's request, is conducting research or evaluation onthe work of the Department or any of its divisions; or any state criminaljustice agency that is conducting research, provided that the agency agreesthat all information received shall be kept confidential, or released orpublished only in aggregate form;
10. With the exception of medical, psychiatric, and psychological records andreports, any full-time or part-time employee of the Department of StatePolice or of a police department or sheriff's office that is a part of oradministrated by the Commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof, andwho is responsible for the enforcement of the penal, traffic, or motorvehicle laws of the Commonwealth, is entitled to any information related to acriminal street gang including that a person is a member of a criminal streetgang as defined in § 18.2-46.1. Information shall be provided by theDepartment to law enforcement without their request to aid in initiating aninvestigation or assist in an ongoing investigation of a criminal street gangas defined in § 18.2-46.1. The Department shall not release the identifyinginformation of a juvenile not affiliated with or involved in a criminalstreet gang unless that information relates to a specific criminal act. Noperson who obtains information pursuant to this subdivision shall divulgesuch information except in connection with a criminal investigation regardinga criminal street gang as defined in § 18.2-46.1 that is authorized by theAttorney General or by the attorney for the Commonwealth or in connectionwith a prosecution or proceeding in court;
11. The Commonwealth's Attorneys' Services Council and any attorney for theCommonwealth, as permitted under subsection B of § 66-3.2; and
12. The Office of the Attorney General, for all criminal justice activitiesotherwise permitted and for purposes of performing duties required by Chapter9 (§ 37.2-900 et seq.) of Title 37.2.
A designated individual treating or responsible for the treatment of a personmay inspect such reports and records as are kept by the Department on suchperson or receive copies thereof, when the person who is the subject of thereports and records or his parent, guardian, legal custodian or other personstanding in loco parentis if the person is under the age of 18, provideswritten authorization to the Department prior to the release of such reportsand records for inspection or copying to the designated individual.
B. The Department may withhold from inspection by a child's parent, guardian,legal custodian or other person standing in loco parentis that portion of therecords referred to in subsection A hereof, when the staff of the Departmentdetermines, in its discretion, that disclosure of such information would bedetrimental to the child or to a third party, provided that the juvenile anddomestic relations district court (i) having jurisdiction over the facilitywhere the child is currently placed or (ii) that last had jurisdiction overthe child if such child is no longer in the custody or under the supervisionof the Department shall concur in such determination.
If any person authorized under subsection A to inspect Department recordsrequests to inspect the reports and records and if the Department withholdsfrom inspection any portion of such record or report pursuant to thepreceding provisions, the Department shall (i) inform the individual makingthe request of the action taken to withhold any information and the reasonsfor such action; (ii) provide such individual with as much information as isdeemed appropriate under the circumstances; and (iii) notify the individualin writing at the time of the request of his right to request judicial reviewof the Department's decision. The circuit court (a) having jurisdiction overthe facility where the child is currently placed or (b) that had jurisdictionover the original proceeding or over an appeal of the juvenile and domesticrelations district court final order of disposition concerning the child ifsuch child is no longer in the custody or under the supervision of theDepartment shall have jurisdiction over petitions filed for review of theDepartment's decision to withhold reports or records as provided herein.
(1977, c. 559; 1978, cc. 738, 740; 1981, c. 487; 1988, c. 541; 1989, c. 733;1994, c. 19; 2000, c. 212; 2002, c. 735; 2003, cc. 108, 143; 2006, cc. 431,500; 2007, c. 511; 2009, c. 740; 2010, cc. 367, 472.)