Child Advocacy Centers, Child Medical Evaluations, and Multidisciplinary Team Information Sharing: New Law in Effect as of July 1

Across North Carolina, there are 55 child advocacy centers (CACs) providing services to children who have experienced maltreatment, including physical or sexual abuse.  Local law enforcement agencies and county departments of social services often coordinate with CACs to conduct child medical evaluations and forensic interviews in investigations of child maltreatment. On July 1, 2024, a new law went into effect that regulates CACs, creates new mandatory multidisciplinary teams involving CACs (with statutorily prescribed membership requirements), authorizes information sharing between members of a CAC multidisciplinary team, and provides new confidentiality protections for a child’s CAC records and information. Read on to learn more about how Session Law 2023-96 affects cases referred to a CAC by departments of social services or law enforcement agencies. The New Statutory Structure S.L. 2023-96 adds a new Article 3A (“Child Advocacy Centers”) to Chapter 108A of the General Statutes. The statutory citations included in the new Article 3A of S.L. 2023-96 were changed when Article 3A was codified. The correct statutory citations are identified in this post. Definitions and New Standards for Child Advocacy Centers Article 3A begins with a lengthy new set of definitions that apply throughout the Article, including but not limited to definitions of key terms like child, child maltreatment, child medical evaluation, forensic interview, law enforcement child medical evaluation, and multidisciplinary team. Prior to the enactment of S.L. 2023-96, “child advocacy center” was not a term defined in state law. Under the new G.S. 108A-77.1(5), a “children’s advocacy center” is now defined as: [...]