AG’s ‘State of the Child’ report looks at protection for at-risk children

WILKES-BARRE — Auditor General Eugene DePasquale this week called for reforms to Pennsylvania’s child abuse appeals process, saying the current system puts children at risk of being re-traumatized by their accused abusers.

“Children should be permitted to testify by video for their own safety and mental health,” DePasquale said. “Allowing abusers to directly confront emotionally fragile children in a closed hearing room is a cruel practice that should have ended decades ago.”

DePasquale released a special report examining the workings of the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals (BHA), an administrative entity within the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. It makes decisions about hundreds of issues such as adoption subsidy denial appeals, elder abuse appeals and child abuse appeals.

“The bureau may seem like an obscure entity, but it wields immense power over the lives of Pennsylvanians,” DePasquale said. “One of the most vital tasks it handles is the appeals of individuals who have been deemed by county children and youth agencies to have abused a child.”

About one-third of those deemed abusers — approximately 1,900 people — appeal their cases each year. Statistics show that BHA judges side with accused abusers more often than with county children and youth agencies; in 2019, the judges sided with accused abusers about 90 percent of the time. People who lose, or never appeal, are listed for life on the state’s ChildLine and Abuse Registry, which is searched during background checks for certain types of jobs and volunteer work.

DePasquale’s report notes that the American Bar Association (ABA) recommends that children should not have to sit in a room and, in front of their abuser, recount the abuse they endured. In fact, the ABA has recommended since July 1985 that law enforcement, social services and prosecutors work together to ensure a victim is interviewed as few times as possible — preferably only once — to prevent re-traumatization.

In 2003, Pennsylvania voters approved an amendment to the state Constitution that allows children to testify via video.

“I think our experience with remote learning during the pandemic has proven that children really don’t have to be present in the hearing room and might be safer elsewhere,” DePasquale said.

The report makes seven recommendations:

• The Department of Human Services must better train its administrative law judges on child development and how to appropriately question abused/traumatized children as witnesses.

• The General Assembly — particularly the Pennsylvania Senate and House of Representatives Children and Youth Committees — should consider legislation to protect the rights of all children being questioned about abuse in all hearings before the courts, as well as during administrative agency hearings before the BHA.

• The General Assembly should also consider closely reviewing (possibly through a panel of child advocates and child experts) the current statutory standard for determining if a child is unavailable as a witness to assess whether the standard is appropriate for ensuring that children are not placed under emotional distress and possibly re-traumatized in an open hearing/court.

• The Department of Human Services and the General Assembly should consider working with the nonprofit Pennsylvania Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Association to develop a program for volunteers to support children required to provide testimony before BHA.

• The Department of Human Services and the General Assembly should work closely with the newly appointed Child Advocate Nicole Yancy and the new Council on Reform for the protection of vulnerable populations to ensure they have the opportunity to provide input on the proposed CASA legislation.

• The Department of Human Services should explore ways of creating a new administrative agency tribunal called the Bureau of Review for Vulnerable Populations separate and apart from BHA.

• The Department of Human Services should retool its processes to meet the demands of the current COVID-19 crisis to ensure the safety and welfare of children across the commonwealth.

DePasquale previously released two other reports aimed at protecting at-risk children. His 2017 “State of the Child” special report detailed the strengths and challenges of Pennsylvania’s child-welfare system; in 2018 he released his “State of the Child Action Plan.”

State to address financial

exploitation of older adults

Taking action to address the findings of its recently released statewide study of financial exploitation of older adults, the Pennsylvania Department of Aging (PDA) has convened an interdisciplinary task force of state agencies, aging, legal, financial, law enforcement and healthcare stakeholders and subject matter experts to discuss the issue of financial exploitation and focus on a multi-disciplinary approach to its prevention.

The formation of a task force was one of the five recommendations of PDA’s Financial Exploitation Study, released in September 2020. The task force is scheduled to meet through April 2021 with the goal of better coordinating efforts and supports for older adults to provide additional opportunities for the early detection and prevention of financial exploitation. Prior to assembling the task force, PDA convened a state inter-agency work group to explore collaborations between agencies and to develop recommendations for the task force to consider.

“Financial exploitation causes significant harm to older adults and we know it is significantly under-reported. The department felt it was imperative to bring together stakeholders who work closely with older adults and discuss how financial exploitation occurs and ways to prevent and stop it,” said Secretary of Aging Robert Torres, who is chairing the task force. “I am pleased with the great feedback we received during the first meeting. Some members even made connections to work with one another outside of the task force. I look forward to seeing tangible results from these collaborations and the work of this task force to help protect vulnerable older adults.”

PDA conducted the financial exploitation study in response to Governor Wolf’s 2019 Executive Order on protecting vulnerable populations. The study examined several hundred substantiated financial exploitation cases investigated by 10 local Area Agencies on Aging, covering 14 Pennsylvania counties.

The study reported that the average victim was female, around 79 years old, widowed and living alone, with an income above the federal poverty guidelines. Sixty-five percent of the perpetrators were family members, most of them adult children. The average financial loss to each victim in the study was almost $40,000, totaling close to $12.5 million in the cases included in the study alone. Only one in 10 to one in 44 cases are ever reported. As a result, estimated losses, including unreported cases, for fiscal year 2017/2018, could have been as high as $2.5 billion.

Resources offered to safely

support local restaurants

As Pennsylvania continues to mitigate the COVID-19 public health crisis, the Wolf Administration this week said Pennsylvanians can take a few simple steps to ensure that they are supporting their local restaurants, including utilizing online resources that promote safe dining options.

“Pennsylvanians have several options and resources available when choosing where to enjoy a meal and support their local restaurants,” said Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) Secretary Dennis Davin. “At the same time, being able support our restaurants, owners, and employees—some of whom may have been in our neighborhoods and lives as long as we can remember—gives us a sense of community that many of us need during this time. It’s a way to see some of our favorite faces, albeit safely behind masks, and make those connections that many of us are missing from businesses we are used to frequenting.”

The administration offers opportunities for Pennsylvanians to explore restaurants that are operating safely and encourages Pennsylvanians to continue to support local eateries through the dining options that are now available to them.

If choosing to dine out, consumers can first go online to explore restaurants that are Open & Certified using the searchable online listing of Open & Certified restaurants. Consumers can add to their sense of safety and confidence for in-person dining by using the newly launched COVID Inspection Dashboard for restaurants’ current status on both food and safety inspection reports.

Consumers can also support restaurants from the comfort of their home by ordering take-out or delivery. Visit the CarryoutPA website, which offers a comprehensive list of restaurants offering takeout, curbside, or delivery services.

Purchase gift cards to save for a future dine-in or dine-out experience and consider buying gift cards as gifts for family and friends.

According to the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association, 4 percent of the national Gross Domestic Product is spent on eating out, with the restaurant industry generating around $863 billion in 2019.