A state Senate committee is examining revisions to the state’s child protection law that would include a change that would allow the state to hold on to unfounded reports of child abuse longer.
At a Monday hearing, the Senate Aging and Youth Committee heard varying views on this proposal from the state Department of Human Services. The department wants to eliminate a requirement for the state to expunge unfounded reports of child abuse from the state’s database after a year.
A department official and others say by holding on to these records longer it would enhance the protection of children and address an inconsistency in laws regarding state and county records retention. But others argue it runs counter to the American philosophy of innocent until proven guilty
A 2018 state law allows counties to hold on for however long they choose records of unfounded child abuse and neglect reports, which child welfare advocates say can be a predictor of future risk.
However, counties are not allowed to share information contained in those records with the state or any other county, which can lead to situations where a transient family can have repeated contacts with the child welfare system in one county and it doesn’t become known until it is too late.
By holding on to unfounded abuse records in the state database, it allows for more than just one county to gain a “more comprehensive understanding of the child and families’ acquired child welfare involvement,” said Jonathan Rubin, the Department of Human Services’ deputy secretary for the Office of Children, Youth & Families. Founded reports are retained in the state database for 10 years or until the youngest child in the report turns 23 years old.
Jonathan Rubin, state Department of Human Services deputy secretary, said maintaining unfounded child abuse reports to be retained longer in the state database would allow for a “more comprehensive understanding of the child and families’ acquired child welfare involvement." Aug. 16, 2021 Screenshot from Pa. Senate website
As it stands now, “when unfounded reports are expunged and there’s a second referral for the previously investigated and unfounded case, there’s no documentation of the prior investigation,” Rubin said.
That could require the county to have to re-investigate an allegation into a situation that was traumatic and difficult for a family, Rubin said. Further, he and others said longer retention of that information is good for research purposes to gain a better understanding of the department’s performance and the outcomes achieved.
But there also is a more practical reason for doing it as well. The state is creating a new child welfare information system that integrates state and county databases. Having two separate expungement criteria could prove costly to implement, Rubin said. The new system is expected to be implemented in 2023.
Critics, however, argue that removing the expungement timeframe is worrisome.
“By definition, being unfounded means no evidence of child abuse or insufficient evidence of child abuse was found,” said Janet Ginzberg, senior staff attorney for Community Legal Services of Philadelphia.
“Like arrests, people deserve not to have mere allegations held against them and used against them forever,” she added. “In most criminal court hearings, prior arrests that didn’t end in conviction would not be allowed to be brought into a new proceeding.”
Rubin maintained that retaining the unfounded reports in the state database will not impact the results of child abuse clearances necessary for some volunteer and employment opportunities.
“When individuals currently apply for their child abuse clearances, the clearance does not come back saying there had been a prior unfounded report,” Rubin said. “The clearance just comes back saying there is no report. So by allowing the state to maintain these records, it will not impact the public’s ability to apply for positions or to receive their child abuse clearances.”
Brian Bornman, executive director of the Pennsylvania Children and Youth Administrators Association, added consistency in the state and county expungement dates clears up the difficult positions counties can face from potentially violating a family’s constitutional rights by subjecting them to a re-investigation of a referral that has already been investigated and unfounded.
Further, he said prior reports can be useful in locating additional family members when investigating a case or informing caseworkers of potential risks such as an aggressive dog at the location.
Others who testified during the hearing made it clear that the proposed changes that the humans services department are proposing don’t go far enough. Child abuse pediatricians and Ginzberg alike, for example, favored the idea of establishing a tiered system for placement on the state’s child abuse registry.
“Not all indicated adults pose the same level of risk to children,” said Dr. Cindy Christian, a child abuse pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “There are many states that have developed tiered registries, recognizing that not all child abuse is the same and I think it would serve Pennsylvania well to revisit the registry.”
Aging and Youth Committee Chairman Judy Ward, R-Blair County, said the hearing was intended to inform the committee of the proposed changes that the department is seeking that are contained in legislation she is offering along with Sen. Maria Collett, D-Montgomery County.
Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.