Pennsylvania State House Passes Several Child Protection Measures by Overwhelming Margins

By Charles Thompson
The Patriot-News
June 20, 2013

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/06/pa_state_house_passes_several.html

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed three bills today in a package designed to improve child protection systems in Pennsylvania, all by overwhelming margins.

The bills, all of which flowed from recommendations from a task force appointed to study the state of Pennsylvania's laws in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, now go to the Senate or further consideration.

The bills approved today include:

* House Bill 430, which requires all persons required to report suspicions of child abuse who are part of an organization to make separate reports both to their supervisors and to the state's Childline system.

The dual-reporting provision is an attempt to stop the type of concealment alleged in the Roman Catholic church clergy abuse cases in Philadelphia or the Sandusky scandal at Penn State.

The bill would also permit Childline to pass cases on to law enforcement, where necessary, by email or other electronic means.

* House Bill 433, a measure providing new safeguards to persons implicated in child abuse investigations, including requirements that any findings of abuse be signed off on both by the head of a child welfare agency and its solicitor.

The bill also requires that all subjects of an investigation be promptly notified of the results of the investigation, and establishes processes for possible removal from the state's registry of child abusers after 5 years.

Supporters said the protections are a needed complement to other proposed changes that would, if enacted, broaden the definition of child abuse in Pennsylvania.

* House Bill 434, which eliminates separate standards for substantiating abuse claims against school employees.

All the bills passed overwhelmingly Thursday, though one of six 'no' votes against HB 430, Rep. Tim Krieger, R-Westmoreland, said he was opposing the bill because he felt some elements in it cut too close to interfering with a parents' right to discipline their children as they see fit.

That brought a strong response from Rep. Kathy Watson, R-Bucks and the bill's prime sponsor.

"There is no intent in the child protection package to interfere with what society calls acceptable parental action or control," Watson said, adding that in her view no one in the child protection system could reasonably construe the changes as a license to go after the Mom who swats an unruly child in a grocery store.

But where there are clear injuries or other problems, Watson added, the state needs the power to intervene.

All of the bills passed today must now be reconciled with parallel packages in the Senate, so it is likely that they will not reach Gov. Tom Corbett's desk until this fall. For a story on that process, click here.

Still pending in the House are other bills, including one that addresses the definition of child abuse in Pennsylvania.

Contact: cthompson@pennlive.com