SECOND REGULAR SESSION
HOUSE BILL NO. 1483
93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES LAMPE (Sponsor), ROORDA, WALSH, MEADOWS, YAEGER,
OXFORD, DARROUGH, WILDBERGER, DOUGHERTY, ROBINSON, MOORE,
YOUNG AND McGHEE (Co-sponsors).
Read 1st time January 23, 2006 and copies ordered printed.
STEPHEN S. DAVIS, Chief Clerk
4135L.01I
AN ACT
To repeal section 454.440, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to child
support enforcement, with penalty provisions.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Section 454.440, RSMo, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu
thereof, to be known as section 454.440, to read as follows:
454.440. 1. As used in this section, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the
following terms mean:
(1) "Business" includes any corporation, partnership, association, individual, and labor
or other organization including, but not limited to, a public utility [or], cable company, cellular
phone company, or Internet service provider;
(2) "Division", the Missouri family support division [of child support enforcement] of
the department of social services;
(3) "Financial entity" includes any bank, trust company, savings and loan association,
credit union, insurance company, or any corporation, association, partnership, or individual
receiving or accepting money or its equivalent on deposit as a business;
(4) "Government agency", any department, board, bureau or other agency of this state
or any political subdivision of the state;
(5) "Information" includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the following items:
(a) Full name of the parent;
(b) Social Security number of the parent;
(c) Date of birth of the parent;
(d) Last known mailing and residential address of the parent;
(e) Amount of wages, salaries, earnings or commissions earned by or paid to the parent;
(f) Number of dependents declared by the parent on state and federal tax information and
reporting forms;
(g) Name of company, policy numbers and dependent coverage for any medical
insurance carried by or on behalf of the parent;
(h) Name of company, policy numbers and cash values, if any, for any life insurance
policies or annuity contracts, carried by or on behalf of, or owned by, the parent;
(i) Any retirement benefits, pension plans or stock purchase plans maintained on behalf
of, or owned by, the parent and the values thereof, employee contributions thereto, and the extent
to which each benefit or plan is vested;
(j) Vital statistics, including records of marriage, birth or divorce;
(k) Tax and revenue records, including information on residence address, employer,
income or assets;
(l) Records concerning real or personal property;
(m) Records of occupational, professional or recreational licenses or permits;
(n) Records concerning the ownership and control of corporations, partnerships or other
businesses;
(o) Employment security records;
(p) Records concerning motor vehicles;
(q) Records of assets or liabilities;
(r) Corrections records;
(s) Names and addresses of employers of parents;
(t) Motor vehicle records; and
(u) Law enforcement records;
(6) "Parent", a biological or adoptive parent, including a presumed or putative father.
2. For the purpose of locating and determining financial resources of the parents relating
to establishment of paternity or to establish, modify or enforce support orders, the division or
other state IV-D agency 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 government agencies, and from businesses and financial entities. A request for
information from a public utility, cellular phone company, Internet service provider, or cable
television company shall be made by subpoena authorized pursuant to this chapter. The
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. In addition, the division or other state IV-D agency may use all
sources of information and available records and, pursuant to agreement with the secretary of the
United States Department of Health and Human Services, or the secretary's designee, request and
receive from the federal Parent Locator Service information pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sections 653
and 663, to determine the whereabouts of any parent or child when such information is to be used
to locate the parent or child to enforce any state or federal law with respect to the unlawful taking
or restraining of a child, or of making or enforcing a child custody or visitation order.
3. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection 2 of this section, no financial entity shall
be required to provide the information requested by the division or other state IV-D agency
unless the division or other state IV-D agency alleges that the parent about whom the information
is sought is an officer, agent, member, employee, depositor, customer or the insured of the
financial institution, or unless the division or other state IV-D agency has complied with the
provisions of section 660.330, RSMo.
4. Any business or financial entity which has received a request from the division or
other state IV-D agency as provided by subsections 2 and 3 of this section 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, within sixty days of receipt of the request and
shall be liable to the state for civil penalties up to one hundred dollars for each day after such
sixty-day period in which it fails to provide the information so requested. Upon request of the
division or other state IV-D agency, the attorney general shall bring an action in a circuit court
of competent jurisdiction to recover the civil penalty. The court shall have the authority to
determine the amount of the civil penalty to be assessed.
5. Any business or financial entity, or any officer, agent or employee of such entity,
participating in good faith in providing information requested pursuant to subsections 2 and 3
of this section shall be immune from liability, civil or criminal, that might otherwise result from
the release of such information to the division or other state IV-D agency.
6. Upon request of the division or other state IV-D agency, any parent shall complete a
statement under oath, upon such form as the division or other state IV-D agency may specify,
providing information, including, but not necessarily limited to, the parent's monthly income, the
parent's total income for the previous year, the number and name of the parent's dependents and
the amount of support the parent provides to each, the nature and extent of the parent's assets,
and such other information pertinent to the support of the dependent as the division or other state
IV-D agency may request. Upon request of the division or other state IV-D agency, such
statements shall be completed annually. Failure to comply with this subsection is a class A
misdemeanor.
7. The disclosure of any information provided to the business or financial entity by the
division or other state IV-D agency, or the disclosure of any information regarding the identity
of any applicant for or recipient of public assistance, by an officer or employee of any business
or financial entity, or by any person receiving such information from such employee or officer
is prohibited. Any person violating this subsection is guilty of a class A misdemeanor.
8. Any person who willfully requests, obtains or seeks to obtain information pursuant
to this section under false pretenses, or who willfully communicates or seeks to communicate
such information to any agency or person except pursuant to this chapter, is guilty of a class A
misdemeanor.
9. For the protection of applicants and recipients of services pursuant to sections 454.400
to 454.645, all officers and employees of, and persons and entities under contract to, the state of
Missouri are prohibited, except as otherwise provided in this subsection, from disclosing any
information obtained by them in the discharge of their official duties relative to the identity of
applicants for or recipients of services or relating to proceedings or actions to establish paternity
or to establish or enforce support, or relating to the contents of any records, files, papers and
communications, except in the administration of the child support program or the administration
of public assistance, including civil or criminal proceedings or investigations conducted in
connection with the administration of the child support program or the administration of public
assistance. Such officers, employees, persons or entities are specifically prohibited from
disclosing any information relating to the location of one party to another party:
(1) If a protective order has been entered against the other party; or
(2) If there is reason to believe that such disclosure of information may result in physical
or emotional harm to the other party.
In any judicial proceedings, except such proceedings as are directly concerned with the
administration of these programs, such information obtained in the discharge of official duties
relative to the identity of applicants for or recipients of child support services or public
assistance, and records, files, papers, communications and their contents shall be confidential and
not admissible in evidence. Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to prohibit the circuit
clerk from releasing information, not otherwise privileged, from court records for reasons other
than the administration of the child support program, if such information does not identify any
individual as an applicant for or recipient of services pursuant to sections 454.400 to 454.645.
Anyone who purposely or knowingly violates this subsection is guilty of a class A misdemeanor.
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