State House Children & Youth Committee Held Child Protection Hearing in Moncto Wednesday

MONTGOMERYVILLE, PA — A state legislator from Montgomery County is calling for improved collaboration between Pennsylvania agencies dedicated to protecting children, following a House committee hearing this week that highlighted the present deficiencies in information sharing.

State Rep. Todd Stephens, R-151, hosted the House Children and Youth Committee hearing Aug. 18 in Montgomery Township. His district represents the communities of Horsham and Upper Dublin in the Pennsylvania legislature.

Stephens spoke with Patch prior to the hearing, which solicited testimony from various representatives of the legal, law enforcement and child protective sectors.

Stephens called on the hearing after learning about a North Penn School District student who filed a federal lawsuit alleging the district did not do enough to protect her from a fellow student known for sexual predation. The plaintiff, known only as Jane Doe, claims she was sexually assaulted more than 20 times from elementary school all the way up through high school.

“The hearing made clear we need our schools, law enforcement agencies and county offices of children and youth to work together to better protect children,” Stephens, a former Montgomery County child abuse prosecutor, said in a statement following this week’s hearing. “To the extent state law prohibits sharing information, I’ll be working to reform our laws to ensure our child protection agencies and schools have the information they need to protect children.”

In his statement, Stephens said while greater collaboration between agencies can be handled through changes in state-level practices and procedures, what he learned through the committee hearing was that some state and federal laws prevent various entities from sharing information with other agencies.

The North Penn lawsuit that was the catalyst for the hearing highlights a problem with information sharing – the girl who was attacked by the other student was indeed able to transfer to another school to escape the attacker, but the male student was also able to be transferred to that same new school due to confidentiality laws that protect minors, according to Stephens’ office.

“The issue of confidentiality in child welfare can be extremely confusing for many people,” Brian Bornman, executive director of Pennsylvania Children and Youth Administrators, said in his prepared remarks read during his testimony at the committee hearing. “Information sharing that many would consider to be common sense is often prohibited, including some that may make children safer in certain circumstances.”

Stephens, in his statement, said that Pennsylvania legislators need to find a way to balance confidentiality with transparency and accountability to ensure the protection of children in the state.

During the hearing, police chiefs from Horsham, Montgomery, Whitemarsh and Towamencin Townships all testified about discrepancies between state mandated Safe Schools Reports that school districts must file with the state and the reports that local police departments receive from school districts, according to Stephens’ office.

Ed McCann, first assistant district attorney in Montgomery County, also offered written testimony on needing to “shine a light on our institutions and demand that they do better, and in just about all cases information must flow to and from those involved with our children, especially our vulnerable children.

“There may be instances where a student has committed a violent act at school. In such cases, the information should be shared with law enforcement, and if the student is required to enroll at a different school, the appropriate individuals there should know as well,” McCann said in his statement. “A response we prefer not to hear from a school is that appropriate information cannot be shared because of the existence of specific laws.”

Stephens, the state representative, previously worked in the child abuse unit at the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office. He has told Patch that child protection is a very important issue close to his heart and that he is dedicated to improving laws related to the protection of children at the state level in his position as a legislator.