Child Abuse Mandated Reporter Upgrades Sail to Gov. Tom Corbett's Desk

By Charles Thompson
PennLive
April 10, 2014

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/04/child_abuse_mandated_reporter.html

Tom Corbett (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file)

The Pennsylvania General Assembly executed the last big deal in an effort to strengthen child protection systems Wednesday.

The state House and Senate both voted without opposition to send two bills changing the state's mandated reporting requirements to Gov. Tom Corbett, closing a deal that had been months in the making.

The signature changes in the new bills are:

Expanding the field of people who are required to make reports to state authorities if they reasonably suspect a case of child abuse. The new requirements fold in regular volunteers in children's programs, most employees at schools and colleges, and attorneys serving schools or agencies that serve a youth population.

Requires the first report to be to the state's ChildLine hotline service, or local police or child welfare agencies. This change is intended to reduce the chances of internal cover-ups of suspected abusers, as has led to criminal charges in recent years both in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia and and at Penn State.

Upgrading the severity of the failure to report criminal charges, as an extra incentive for all mandated reporters to take their duties seriously.

With the passage of the mandated reporter changes, "there is a clear path on what they (reporters) are to do with suspected child abuse," said Sen. Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland County.

"Our children, and children for generations to one, have a stronger layer of protection; one that they didn't have before."

Corbett is expected to sign both Ward's Senate Bill 21 and Montgomery County Republican Rep. Todd Stephens' House Bill 436 in the coming days, along with several other remaining pieces of what has become a 15-bill package.

The package largely follows recommendations from a blue-ribbon task force on child protection that was empaneled shortly at the November 2011 arrest of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky on dozens of child sex abuse charges.

Most of the changes are scheduled to become effective in January 2015, in order to give a window for training on the changes at schools, police forces, health care facilities and other institutions.

cthompson@pennlive.com