Legislation to authorize hearings on creating objective guidelines and uniform reporting standards for personnel who are tasked with protecting children in Philadelphia from abuse while preventing the tragedy of unjustified family separations.
Authorizing Council’s Committee on Health and Human Services to hold hearings to examine the possibility of the Department of Human Services creating objective guidelines and uniform reporting standards for personnel who are tasked with protecting children in Philadelphia from abuse while preventing the tragedy of unjustified family separations.
RESOLUTION
Authorizing Council’s Committee on Health and Human Services to hold hearings to
examine the possibility of the Department of Human Services creating objective
guidelines and uniform reporting standards for personnel who are tasked with protecting
children in Philadelphia from abuse while preventing the tragedy of unjustified family
separations.
WHEREAS, Child abuse is a very serious, deplorable offense that has no place in a just
society; and
WHEREAS, Recent high-profile cases of child abuse have underscored the importance of
protecting children from abuse; and
WHEREAS, While the balance is delicate between erring on the side of caution or
deciding against reporting any level of suspicious activity, the bonds between family
members—especially parent and child—are developmentally important, and should be
jeopardized only under compelling circumstances based on evidence in the interest of
protecting the child; and
WHEREAS, The lack of objective reporting standards and the risk of liability for
mandated reporters incentivizes the reporting of all incidents as suspected child abuse,
regardless of evidence; and
WHEREAS, Such policies have the adverse effect of causing a proliferation of reporting
without adherence to standards, protocols, or guidelines regarding the merits of such
reports; and
WHEREAS, A lack of objective guidelines and uniform reporting standards as to what
qualifies as reasonable grounds for reporting incidents as possible child abuse opens the
possibility of subjective reporting influenced by cultural or other biases instead of factual
evidence; and
WHEREAS, Reports of suspected child abuse which are not backed up with any evidence
but instead rely on the intuition of personnel who are incentivized to report all incidents
while lacking established, objective criteria can cause significant risk and hardship for
families subjected to unjustified separations; and
WHEREAS, Every effort is needed to ensure that cases of child abuse are properly
identified, reported, and prosecuted. Adherence to a clearly-defined set of guidelines and
uniform reporting standards could increase organizational efficiency and effectiveness in
accomplishing this goal; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That it hereby
authorizes Council’s Committee on Health and Human Services to hold hearings to
examine the possibility of the Department of Human Services creating objective
guidelines and uniform reporting standards for personnel who are tasked with protecting
children in Philadelphia from abuse while preventing the tragedy of unjustified family
separations.