Child Protection Legislation Passes Committee

In March, I wrote about the importance of my Senate Bill 31 (SB 31), which would toughen child abuse reporting requirements in schools and how I hoped that the Legislature would work quickly to pass this measure.  Last week, the Senate Education Committee took the first steps to this bill becoming law and passed SB 31 unanimously. 

First introduced in 2005, this legislation would require school district authorities to report possible child abuse to law enforcement within 24 hours. SB 31 would remove the different reporting requirement for school employees and put them on the same level as other mandated reporters.  Furthermore, this measure requires that an incident be reported directly to Childline or the police. The bill covers all students, from kindergarten through college.

My legislation was inspired by a distraught mother who called me and said her son had been transported from school to an emergency room. The child had bleeding brush burns, choke marks around his neck and broken blood vessels in his face -- all caused by a teacher.  Even though the mother, emergency room doctor and social worker all tried reporting the incident to Childline, they were told that the law prevented investigation because the injuries were not deemed serious enough. 

Schools should be a place of learning and sometimes procedures need to be reviewed and changed in order to protect students’ health and safety.  No parents should ever have to go through what my constituent and her son had to face.

I am heartened and encouraged by the strong bipartisan vote that took place in committee and look forward to the full Senate acting on my bill.  I believe my legislation will take significant strides in protecting our children and ensuring their safety in schools. It doesn’t matter who is suspected of abuse.  Each case should be handled the same.