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House panel approves plan to create child abuse reporting working group, with questions on membership and speed
Summary
The House Human Services Committee considered S239 to form a working group to modernize mandatory child abuse and neglect reporting rules, focusing on who must report and what information should be gathered. Lawmakers raised concerns about timeline, inclusion of medical and education representatives, and elevating lived-experience voices.
Chair Wood convened the House Human Services Committee to take up Senate Bill S239, which would create a child abuse and neglect reporting working group to review and recommend updates to the state’s mandatory reporting rules and related policy. The bill tasks the group with developing findings and any legislative recommendations for the House Human Services Committee and other relevant committees.
The working group is framed as a ‘‘front-end’’ review aimed at modernizing who is required to report suspected child abuse or neglect and what information is collected before the Department for Children and Families (DCF) accepts a report. Michelle Miles, legislative counsel for the judiciary team, told the committee the bill’s focus is ‘‘rules and policy regarding mandatory reporting of abuse and neglect of a child’’ and stressed it is distinct from Act 154, which shapes DCF’s internal intake and investigative procedures.
Under the bill’s…
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