PENNSYLVANIA - Mandated Reporting

May 14, 2007 - New mandated reporting law in Pennsylvania will go into effect May 28.

REASONABLE SUSPICION
Before the law was enacted, those who work with children did not have to report cases of abuse if the information did not come directly from the child. Now, mandated reporters need only to have a "reasonable suspicion" that abuse has taken place in order to make a complaint.

PENALTIES FOR NOT REPORTING
To give the law more teeth, penalties for first-time offenders were increased from a summary offense to a third-degree misdemeanor, carrying a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. A second offense is now second-degree misdemeanor, which carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

NEW DEFINITION OF MANDATED REPORTER
The new law expands the definition of a mandated reporter to "a person who, in the course of his or her employment, occupation or practice of a profession comes into contact with children."
That means under the law, anyone from the school janitor to the receptionist at a pediatrician's office is considered a mandated reporter even if they're not aware of their obligation to report instances of abuse