CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION AND SAFETY AT FACILITIES

SEC 1505. CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION AND SAFETY AT FACILITIES (a) Child Abuse Task Force.—The Secretary of Defense shall establish and maintain a special task force to respond to allegations of widespread child abuse at a military installation. The task force shall be composed of personnel from appropriate disciplines, including, where appropriate, medicine, psychology, and childhood development. In the case of such allegations, the task force shall provide assistance to the commander of the installation, and to parents at the installation, in helping them to deal with such allegations. (b) National Hotline.—(1) The Secretary of Defense shall establish and maintain a national telephone number for persons to use to report suspected child abuse or safety violations at a military child development center or family home day care site. The Secretary shall ensure that such reports may be made anonymously if so desired by the person making the report. The Secretary shall establish procedures for following up on complaints and information received over that number. (2) The Secretary shall establish such national telephone number not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act and shall publicize the existence of the number. (c) Assistance From Local Authorities.—The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe regulations requiring that, in a case of allegations of child abuse at a military child development center or family home day care site, the commander of the military installation or the head of the task force established under subsection (a) shall seek the assistance of local child protective authorities if such assistance is available. (d) Safety Regulations.—The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe regulations on safety and operating procedures at military child development centers. Those regulations shall apply uniformly among the military departments. (e) Inspections.—The Secretary of Defense shall require that each military child development center be inspected not less often than four times a year. Each such inspection shall be unannounced. At least one inspection a year shall be carried out by a representative of the installation served by the center, and one inspection a year shall be carried out by a representative of the major command under which that installation operates. (f) Remedies for Violations.—(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), any violation of a safety, health, or child welfare law or regulation (discovered at an inspection or otherwise) at a military child development center shall be remedied immediately. (2) In the case of a violation that is not life threatening, the commander of the major command under which the installation concerned operates may waive the requirement that the violation be remedied immediately for a period of up to 90 days beginning on the date of the discovery of the violation. If the violation is not remedied as of the end of that 90-day period, the military child development center shall be closed until the violation is remedied. The Secretary 103 STAT. 1594of the military department concerned may waive the preceding sentence and authorize the center to remain open in a case in which the violation cannot reasonably be remedied within that 90-day period or in which major facility reconstruction is required. (3) If a military child development center is closed under paragraph (2), the Secretary of the military department concerned shall promptly submit to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and House of Representatives a report notifying those committees of the closing. The report shall include— (A) notice of the violation that resulted in the closing and the cost of remedying the violation; and (B) a statement of the reasons why the violation has not been remedied as of the time of the report. (g) Report on Cooperation With Department of Justice.—(1) The Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Attorney General, shall study matters relating to military child care that are of concern to the Department of Justice. The matters studied shall include the following: (A) Improving communication between the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice in investigations of child abuse in military programs and in the coordination of the conduct of such investigations. (B) Eliminating overlapping responsibilities between the two departments. (C) Making better use of government and non-government experts in child abuse investigations and prosecutions. (D) Improving communication with affected families by the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, and appropriate State and local agencies. (2) Not later than six months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to Congress a report on the study required by paragraph (1). The report shall include recommendations on methods for improving the matters studied. (3) Not later than nine months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress a report evaluating the findings in the report submitted under paragraph (2).