Within thirty days after the Department of Social Services notifies any person that he or she will be placed on the central registry for child abuse and neglect based upon a substantiated investigation, the person may request an administrative hearing. The administrative hearing is limited to determining whether the record should be amended or removed on the grounds that it is inaccurate. The request shall be made in writing and directed to the person designated by the department in the notice. However, if there has been a court finding of child abuse or neglect, the record’s accuracy is conclusively presumed and the person has no right to an administrative hearing. In the hearing, the burden of proving the accuracy of the record is on the department. The hearing examiner may order the amendment or removal of the record. The decision of the hearing examiner shall be made in writing within ninety days after the date of receipt of the request for a hearing and shall state the reasons upon which it is based. Decisions of the department under this section are administrative decisions subject to judicial review under chapter 1-26. In any case where there has been no substantiated report of child abuse and neglect, the department may not maintain a record or other information of unsubstantiated child abuse and neglect for longer than three years if there has been no further report within that three-year period.

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Source: SL 1991, ch 217, § 120; SL 1996, ch 178, § 2; SL 1997, ch 159, § 1; SL 2007, ch 164, § 1.