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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2021 - 2022
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | April 9, 2021 03:55 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Bob Mensch |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Enhancing Investigations by Multidisciplinary Investigative Teams |
| In the near future, I will be introducing legislation to improve multidisciplinary investigative teams (MDIT) investigations by enhancing information sharing processes in the Child Protective Services Law (CPSL) and the Criminal History Record Information Act (CHRIA). In March of this year, the Children’s Advocacy Center and Advisory Committee (CACAC) issued a memorandum with a list of items which they feel can be done legislatively to improve the detection, reporting, investigation, prosecution and treatment of child abuse in all forms. This legislation is modeled after their chief recommendation. According to the memorandum, “There are numerous sections in the CPSL that refer to information sharing between county children and youth services (CYS), law enforcement, the medical community, and victim advocates. However, the law has been interpreted differently across the Commonwealth, leading to confusion and disparate services and investigations. Since child abuse investigations are intended to be performed in a joint fashion, and access to [children’s advocacy centers] CACs is continually expanding, open communication between all the relevant stakeholders is crucial to each case.” While we continue to focus on policies to eliminate abuse of all forms in Pennsylvania, I think we would be remiss if we didn’t begin by looking into this information sharing recommendation which can be a simple step towards this goal. If you have any questions, please call David Kozak in my office at 717-787-3110. |