409.2577 Parent locator service.—The department shall establish a parent locator service to assist in locating parents who have deserted their children and other persons liable for support of dependent children. The department shall use all sources of information available, including the Federal Parent Locator Service, and may request and shall receive information from the records of any person or the state or any of its political subdivisions or any officer thereof. Any agency as defined in s. 120.52, any political subdivision, and any other person shall, upon request, provide the department any information relating to location, salary, insurance, social security, income tax, and employment history necessary to locate parents who owe or potentially owe a duty of support pursuant to Title IV-D of the Social Security Act. This provision shall expressly take precedence over any other statutory nondisclosure provision which limits the ability of an agency to disclose such information, except that law enforcement information as provided in s. 119.071(4)(d) is not required to be disclosed, and except that confidential taxpayer information possessed by the Department of Revenue shall be disclosed only to the extent authorized in s. 213.053(16). Nothing in this section requires the disclosure of information if such disclosure is prohibited by federal law. Information gathered or used by the parent locator service is confidential and exempt from the provisions of s. 119.07(1). Additionally, the department is authorized to collect any additional information directly bearing on the identity and whereabouts of a person owing or asserted to be owing an obligation of support for a dependent child. The department shall, upon request, make information available only to public officials and agencies of this state; political subdivisions of this state, including any agency thereof providing child support enforcement services to non-Title IV-D clients; the parent owed support, legal guardian, attorney, or agent of the child; and other states seeking to locate parents who have deserted their children and other persons liable for support of dependents, for the sole purpose of establishing, modifying, or enforcing their liability for support, and shall make such information available to the Department of Children and Families for the purpose of diligent search activities pursuant to chapter 39. If the department has reasonable evidence of domestic violence or child abuse and the disclosure of information could be harmful to the parent owed support or the child of such parent, the child support program director or designee shall notify the Department of Children and Families and the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services of this evidence. Such evidence is sufficient grounds for the department to disapprove an application for location services.
History.—s. 9, ch. 76-220; s. 1, ch. 77-174; s. 20, ch. 87-95; s. 15, ch. 88-176; s. 5, ch. 91-71; s. 25, ch. 92-138; s. 13, ch. 95-398; s. 255, ch. 96-406; s. 56, ch. 97-170; s. 149, ch. 98-403; s. 17, ch. 99-375; s. 43, ch. 2004-335; s. 50, ch. 2005-251; s. 4, ch. 2006-85; s. 2, ch. 2006-180; s. 25, ch. 2008-61; s. 187, ch. 2014-19.
