PA: Legislative Update SB 26

Did you know that PA has two different definitons of abuse? One for school personnel and one for everyone else? If passed, SB 26 will change that...

Information forwarded from the Value Coaliton:

Senate Bill 26. SB 26 is an amendment to the Child Protective Services Act – the law that requires certain “mandatory reporters” (such as physicians) to report suspected child abuse to county child welfare agencies. The Act requires the county to investigate the reports and to take appropriate steps when the report is founded. It also creates a directory of founded reports; being listed on the directory affects abusers’ ability to get jobs that put them in charge of kids.

What’s the problem?

Mandatory reporters must report suspected child abuse. For everyone responsible for a child’s welfare other than school employees, child abuse is defined as, for a child under age 18, an act or failure to act which causes or creates an imminent risk of non-accidental serious physical injury, mental injury, or sexual abuse or exploitation. Serious physical injury is defined as an injury that causes a child severe pain or significantly interferes with a child’s ability to accomplish age-appropriate developmental and social tasks.

However, what constitutes child abuse for school employees is different. School employees’ conduct must be reported if it constitutes “bodily”, not physical, injury. Bodily injury is defined as injury that “creates a substantial risk of death or which causes serious permanent disfigurement or protracted loss or impairment of function of any bodily member or organ.” Mental injury is excluded altogether. Thus, school employees currently have much more protection from mandatory reporting. They will also only be listed on the directory (and their employment options limited) if they have been guilty of the much more serious level of abuse.

Needless to say, this is very troubling to parents and advocates.

What’s the solution?

If SB 26 becomes law, child abuse will mean the same thing for school employees as for other persons who are “responsible for the child’s welfare.” (It’s a little complicated how the amendment works: child abuse is committed by “perpetrators”; perpetrators include “persons responsible for the child’s welfare”; and the amendment adds school employees to the definition of “persons responsible for the child’s welfare.” SB 26 also eliminates the parts of the Act that treat school employees differently)."