National Child Protection Act of 1993
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National Child Protection Act of 1993 - Establishes a national criminal history background check system (System) to which a designated agency in each State is required to report child abuse crime information, or index such information in the System, for purposes of background checks of child care providers.
(Sec. 2) Directs the Attorney General: (1) subject to availability of appropriations, to establish guidelines for the reporting or indexing of such information and timetables for each State to report; and (2) to publish annually a statistical summary of child abuse crimes and a summary of each State's progress in reporting to the System.
Requires: (1) State agencies to maintain close liaison for the exchange of technical assistance with the National Centers on Child Abuse and Neglect, for Missing and Exploited Children, and for the Prosecution of Child Abuse; and (2) the Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to begin a study to determine various factors relating to child abuse crimes and offenders.
(Sec. 3) Authorizes a State to have in effect procedures that require qualified entities to contact a State agency to request a nationwide background check. Sets forth requirements of such procedures, including that: (1) no qualified entity may request a background check unless the provider first provides fingerprints and specified other information; (2) each provider subject to a background check is entitled to a copy of any background check report, to challenge its accuracy and completeness, and to obtain a prompt determination as to the validity of such challenge before a final determination is made by the authorized agency; (3) an authorized agency, upon receipt of such a report lacking disposition data, shall conduct research in whatever State and local recordkeeping systems are available in order to obtain complete data; and (4) such agency shall make a determination whether the provider has been convicted of, or is under pending indictment for, a crime that bears upon an individual's fitness to have responsibility for the safety and well-being of children and shall convey that determination to the qualified entity.
Sets forth provisions regarding liability and fees.
(Sec. 4) Amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (Omnibus Act) to provide for the use of drug control and system improvement grants for the improvement of State record systems and the sharing of records of child abuse crime information.
Directs the Attorney General, subject to appropriations and with preference to States with the lowest percent currency of case dispositions in computerized criminal history files, to make additional grants: (1) for the computerization of, and improvement of existing computerized, criminal history files; (2) to improve accessibility to the System; and (3) to assist the State in the transmittal of criminal records to, or the indexing of criminal history records in, the System.
Authorizes appropriations. Permits the withholding of up to ten percent of an allocation for a fiscal year under the Omnibus Act from a State that is not in compliance with the requirements of this Act.
Became Public Law No: 103-209.
- Engrossed in House Formatted Text PDF
- Enrolled Bill Formatted Text PDF
- Introduced in House Formatted Text PDF
- Public Law PDF
- Received in Senate Formatted Text PDF
- Reported in House Formatted Text PDF
Cite this page
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 1237: National Child Protection Act of 1993. 103rd Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/103-HR-1237/
"H.R. 1237: National Child Protection Act of 1993." 103rd Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/103-HR-1237/.
H.R. 1237, 103rd Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/103-HR-1237/.
[H.R. 1237: National Child Protection Act of 1993](https://openamerica.io/bill/103-HR-1237/)