COLUMBUS (OH)
WCMH [Columbus OH]
April 29, 2026
By Jesse Bethea
Two state lawmakers pushing for an overhaul of Ohio’s child protection laws said if their bill had already been enacted, it might have saved the life of seven-year-old Hershall Creachbaum.
Creachbaum was killed in Dayton last July; his mother and her boyfriend are now facing criminal charges related to his death.
The Child Protection Reform Act, sponsored by Ohio Reps. Phil Plummer (R-Dayton) and Tom Young (R-Washington Twp.), would address the breakdowns in communication between social services, county agencies and law enforcement that, according to the sponsors, led, in part, to Creachbaum’s death.
“If there’s a continual domestic violence situation at that house, police departments will have to share that report with children’s services,” Plummer said. “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire and if somebody’s going to be beating on their spouse or their loved one, good chance the kids are going to get beat on also, so those are the kind of indicators we want to flag and share the information with all the agencies involved.”
House Bill 635 would strengthen the requirements for mandatory abuse or neglect reporting, improve inter-agency coordination, and incorporate police data into child welfare decision-making. It would also increase oversight of childcare group homes, enhance penalties for violent offenses against children, and institute whistleblower protections for caseworkers.
“We get calls from children’s services workers where they don’t think the process was followed,” Plummer said. “If they want to call us and tell us of a problem in the process, we’re going to give them protection.”
Democrats on the House Children and Human Services Committee seemed receptive to H.B. 635 when it was introduced in March, but noted that local social service agencies are already stretched thin. Rep. Crystal Lett (D-Columbus), ranking Democrat on the committee, said in a statement that the bill would put additional expectations on “overworked and underpaid” case workers without additional resources.
“I appreciate the bill authors’ commitment to keeping Ohio’s kids safe, and I share that goal,” Lett said. “My worry is that without investment in the system, the caseworkers, or prevention, even well-intentioned legislation can become an unfunded mandate. True child protection involves more than penalties after a child has been harmed. It also requires the upstream resources that help us prevent harm in the first place.”
But Young and Plummer are not accepting any requests for appropriations.
“Until we get some clarification on data and how the existing system works and where assets are being used, whether they’re being used in an effective way or not, that’s what we will review first before appropriating any monies,” Young said.
In the bill’s first committee hearing, Rep. Ashley Bryant Bailey (D-Cincinnati) also raised questions about the protection of private medical data. Plummer asserted Wednesday that H.B. 635 would not violate federal HIPAA protections.How much former Ohio State President Ted Carter spent on travel using university funds
“We all understand that we have to protect medical information, but there are situations where we can share intelligence that we don’t, and it’s always people hiding behind HIPAA,” Plummer said. “Most of the people who say, ‘I can’t share that because of HIPAA,’ they don’t understand HIPAA.”
So far, H.B. 635 has received only one hearing before the House Children and Human Services Committee.