Big Changes in Child Abuse Law—especially for Educators

Legal Intelligencer
February 20, 2015

http://www.thelegalintelligencer.com/home/id=1202718379436/Big-Changes-in-Child-Abuse-LawmdashEspecially-for-Educators?mcode=1202615324341&curindex=0&slreturn=20150120115727

Child abuse investigations in Pennsylvania are governed by something called the Child Protective Services Law (CPSL). Over the last two years, in the wake of the Penn State and Catholic Church sex-abuse scandals, there has been a push in the state legislature to significantly overhaul the CPSL and close some loopholes and ambiguities. The last and most sweeping of these changes, actually 23 pieces of new legislation, took effect Dec. 31, 2014. Educators are the group of professionals that are most largely affected by these changes.

Although there are several significant changes to the way child abuse is reported and investigated in Pennsylvania, the most significant change affecting educators is that the "chain of command" reporting procedure for child abuse is no longer acceptable. In fact, this is something that went from an accepted practice to a third-degree felony if the underlying abuse rises to the level of a felony.

These changes are best illustrated through the Penn State example. An assistant football coach at Penn State University saw Jerry Sandusky sexually abusing a boy in the shower of the football locker room. He reported that to the head coach, who supposedly reported it to the athletic director, who supposedly reported it to the head of campus security and to the university president. As we now know, the matter was never properly investigated and no one caught up with Sandusky until years later. Under the old version of the CPSL, neither the assistant coach nor the head coach had a mandatory duty to do anything for two reasons. First, only certain school employees were subject to the old CPSL's mandatory reporting requirements and, second, the definition of "school" did not include colleges and universities.