Child Protection Bill Sponsored by Rep. Stephens Signed Into Law

PENNSYLVANIA — Governor Tom Wolf signed into law this week a measure designed to improve communication between agencies who are tasked with investigating instances of child abuse.

The measure, which was also known as Act 42, was sponsored by State Rep. Todd Stephens, a Republican representing the 151st Legislative District, which covers all of Horsham Township and part of Upper Dublin in Montgomery County.

The proposed legislation, Stephens said, arose from a need to allow various law enforcement agencies to share information that is pertinent to instances of child abuse or alleged child abuse with those entities across the state that are required to investigate such matters under the Child Protective Services Law.

Stephens, who is also an attorney and previously served as a prosecutor with the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office handling child abuse cases, stated that he sponsored the legislation after being made aware that law enforcement agencies had been blocked from sharing certain investigative or criminal record history information with county youth agencies due to provisions in the Criminal History Record Information Act.

“Collaboration is critically important to protecting our children,” Stephens said in a statement from his office. “This change will allow our child protection agencies to share information to better protect our kids and prevent child abuse survivors from being forced to relive their trauma through repetitive interviews.”

In his statement, Stephens said he had been made aware of the problem by both the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office and Mission Kids of Montgomery County, which is a child advocacy group whose mission, its website states, is to achieve “healing and justice for victims of child abuse by providing collaborative services, advocacy, leadership and education.”

The new law also enables Children’s Advocacy Centers of Pennsylvania to access certain investigative information that would aid youth services organizations during the course of any investigation into suspected child abuse, and which would previously have been inaccessible, according to the legislator’s office.

Children’s Advocacy Centers is a statewide nonprofit organization whose goal is to offer resources, training and other assistance to the more than 40 individual child advocacy groups under its umbrella across the commonwealth.

“I want to thank the people of Mission Kids and the Montgomery County DA’s office for their help in correcting this flaw in our child protection system,” Stephens said in his statement.