9-28-119. Department of Human Services — Power to obtain information — Definitions.

9-28-119. Department of Human Services — Power to obtain information — Definitions. (a) As used in this section: (1) “Business” means any corporation, partnership, cable television company, association, individual, or utility company that is organized privately, as a cooperative, or as a quasi-public entity, and labor or other organization maintaining an office, doing business, or having a registered agent in the State of Arkansas; (2) “Financial entity” means any bank, trust company, savings and loan association, credit union, or insurance company or any corporation, association, partnership, or individual receiving or accepting money or its equivalent on deposit as a business in the State of Arkansas; (3) “Information” means, without limitation, the following: (A) The full name of a parent, a putative father, or relative; (B) The Social Security number of a parent or a putative father; (C) The date of birth of a parent, a putative father, or relative; (D) The last known mailing address and residential address of a parent, a putative father, or relative; (E) The amount of wages, salaries, earnings, or commissions earned by a parent or a putative father; and (F) A certified copy of an acknowledgement of paternity; (4) “Parent” means a biological mother, an adoptive parent, or a man to whom the biological mother was married at the time of conception or birth or who has signed an acknowledgment of paternity pursuant to § 9-10-120 or who has been found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be the biological father of the juvenile; (5) “Putative father” means any man not deemed or adjudicated under the laws of the jurisdiction of the United States to be the biological father of a juvenile and who claims or is alleged to be the biological father of the juvenile; (6) “Relative” means an adult grandparent, adult aunt, or adult uncle of the child; and (7) “State or local government agency” means a department, a board, a bureau, a commission, an office, or other agency of this state or any local unit of government of this state. (b)(1) The Department of Human Services may request and receive information from the Federal Parent Locator Service, from available records in other states, territories, and the District of Columbia, from the records of all state agencies, and from businesses and financial entities for the purpose of locating a parent, a putative father, or a relative and for the purpose of determining resources of a parent or a putative father. (2) The Secretary of the Department of Human Services may enter into cooperative agreements with other state agencies, businesses, or financial entities to provide direct online access to data information terminals, computers, or other electronic information systems. (3) State and local government agencies, businesses, and financial entities shall provide information, if known or chronicled in their business records, notwithstanding any other provision of law making the information confidential. (4) In addition, the Department of Human Services may, under an agreement with the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, or his or her designee, request and receive from the Federal Parent Locator Service information authorized under 42 U.S.C. § 653, for the purpose of determining the whereabouts of a parent or child. This information may be requested and received when it is to be used to locate the parent or child for the purpose of enforcing a state or federal law with respect to the unlawful taking or restraining of a child or for the purpose of making or enforcing a child custody determination. (c) Any business or financial entity that has received a request from the Department of Human Services as provided by subsection (b) of this section shall further cooperate with the Department of Human Services in discovering, retrieving, and transmitting information contained in the business records that would be useful in locating absent parents or relatives and shall provide the requested information or a statement that any or all of the requested information is not known or available to the business or financial entity. This shall be done within thirty (30) days of receipt of the request, or the business or financial entity shall be liable for civil penalties of up to one hundred dollars ($100) for each day after the thirty-day period in which it fails to provide the requested information. (d) Any business or financial entity or any officer, agent, or employee of the business or financial entity participating in good faith and providing information requested under this section shall be immune from liability and suit for damages that might otherwise result from the release of the information to the Department of Human Services. (e) Any information obtained under the provisions of this section shall become a business record of the Department of Human Services, subject to the privacy safeguards set out in § 9-28-407.