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03/19/2024 04:26 AM
Pennsylvania State Senate
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20170&cosponId=26284
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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2017 - 2018 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: August 28, 2018 03:09 PM
From: Senator Mike Regan
To: All Senate members
Subject: Child Exploitation Awareness Education Program
 
In light of both the recent grand jury report on child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, as well as our ongoing efforts to address school safety and the mental health aspect of the issue, I plan to introduce companion legislation to House Bill 1844 requiring Pennsylvania’s public schools to administer a child exploitation awareness program for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Act 71 of 2014 provided schools the option of implementing such a program. Schools that choose to do so may use model curriculum developed by the PA Department of Education. Participating schools must also provide four hours of child exploitation awareness training every five years for educators assigned to teach child exploitation awareness education.

This proposal would make two important changes to the current law:
  • First, it makes implementation of the program mandatory for all school entities – defined as a school district, charter school, cyber charter school, intermediate unit or area vocational-technical school.
  • Second, it allows schools to meet this requirement by partnering with a local community organization, such as a police department, to implement the program at no cost to the school. A participating community organization would have to be approved by the Child Advocacy Center (CAC) Advisory Committee.
The second aspect of the proposal is key to ensure this is not yet another unfunded mandate on our schools. Many organizations in our communities are already developing and providing these services to schools, and they are ready and willing to serve more in order to protect our students.

Teachers, administrators, and other school staff are mandatory reporters. We teach them how to report suspected abuse, but we are not teaching our students how to report their own abuse to these trusted adults – or even what abuse is, so they can recognize it and do something about it.

We want to protect our kids from harm, so let’s empower them with the tools to protect themselves from abuse. And if we are able to do that, we may just be able to put a stop to abuse and to prevent a student that has been hurt in this way from acting out through violence at school.

Please join me in co-sponsoring this important piece of legislation.