Child abuse cases are on the rise, and advocates say better community support and training could make the difference in ensuring those numbers don’t continue to climb.

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services released its latest data on child abuse and neglect in its annual Child Protective Services Report. After a notable drop in reports from 2019 to 2020 due to the pandemic and reduced contact between kids and mandated reporters, the numbers are ticking up again.

In 2023, there were about 40,000 reports of suspected child abuse, compared to 39,000 reports in 2022. In 2019, prior to Pennsylvania experiencing the impacts of the pandemic, suspected child abuse reports totaled 42,000.

While the jump from year to year is slight, child advocates believe intervention and providing families with more robust social services are critical first steps to stop the growing trend.

The Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance notes that the report coincides with an advisory from U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy last week calling parental stress a public health concern. Parents continue to be the most responsible for abuse of their children, according to the state’s report, and research has consistently tied stress and child abuse, particularly among low-income families.

“Mental health services and resources are scant, parents are working more than ever; and it’s hard to find affordable childcare, housing and food,” the organization’s CEO Angela Liddle said in a statement. “A child being mistreated isn’t a family matter. It’s an illustration that we as a society must do better for our most vulnerable citizens.”

To another statewide children’s nonprofit, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, reducing families’ contact and need for protective services also requires taking a hard look at the system itself.

Pennsylvania has continued to see an uptick in mandated reporting since pre-pandemic. Counties must investigate all reports suspecting abuse but have discretion on whether to investigate or screen out neglect reports. According to the report, the state’s rate for screen outs is 53%, while Allegheny County is at 61% for 2023.

With counties screening out such high rates of abuse reports, it begs to question why ChildLine is screening so many referrals in, said Carolyn Myers, director of communications for Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children. The high screen out rate coupled with the low substantiation rates point to the need, she said, for narrowing the door of what constitutes as neglect.

The organization wants policies related to ChildLine, the state’s 24/7 hotline that accepts child abuse referrals and general child well-being concerns, as well as county reviews on referrals of neglect, to be evaluated.

“Clearly, families are being over-reported to ChildLine and don’t require intrusion of the child welfare system,” Ms. Myers said.

Allegheny County is known for having more expansive programming among the state’s human services agencies and focusing highly on prevention. However, this greatly varies county to county, where there may be less access to services and supports to adequately address prevention, Ms. Myers said.

The good news, according to the Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance’s director of programs Haven Evans, is that the report indicates that mandated reporters have continued to follow through on their obligations to report mistreatment of children.

The report showed that mandated reporters were the source of 82% of all suspected child abuse reports in 2023, a 1.3% increase from the previous year.

Ms. Evans says continued, regular training for these individuals remains critical, especially as abuse and neglect cases rise nationally. That’s why the PFSA is hosting training sessions throughout September at no cost to mandated reporters. These individuals are often the single link between a child and safety from abuse, Ms. Evans said.

But it also takes those who aren’t required by law to report mistreatment to protective services. The PFSA runs the Front Porch Project, a prevention initiative that provides community trainings to help anyone learn how to take an active role in preventing abuse and neglect before it occurs.

“We all have a role to play in protecting children,” Ms. Evans said. “Our children rely on us to protect them, and we should do everything we can to ensure that happens. That means that workforce investments or there needs to be more community based supports for families, then we need to do that, because our children are worth it.”

From Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 2, 2024