____________________________ Child Abuse Identification and Reporting: The Pennsylvania Requirement
EXCLUSIONS In addition, the CPSL explicitly excludes specific acts and injuries from the definition of child abuse: • Restatement of culpability: Conduct that causes injury or harm to a child or creates a risk of injury or harm to a child shall not be considered child abuse if there is no evidence that the person acted intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly when causing the injury or harm to the child or creating a risk of injury or harm to the child. • Child abuse exclusions: The term child abuse does not include any conduct for which an exclusion is provided in § 6304 of the PA CPSL (relating to exclusions from child abuse). Exclusions to the definition of child abuse (23 Pa.C.S. § 6304): • Environmental factors: No child shall be deemed to be physically or mentally abused based on injuries that result solely from environmental factors, such as inadequate housing, furnishings, income, clothing, and medical care, that are beyond the control of the parent or person responsible for the child’s welfare with whom the child resides. This shall not apply to any child-care service as defined under section 6303(a) of the PA CPSL (excluding an adoptive parent). • Practice of religious beliefs: If, upon investigation, the county agency determines that a child has not been provided needed medical or surgical care because of sincerely held religious beliefs of the child’s parents or relative within the third degree of consanguinity and with whom the child resides, which beliefs are consis- tent with those of a bona fide religion, the child shall not be deemed to be physically or mentally abused. In such cases the following shall apply: – The county agency shall closely monitor the child and the child’s family and shall seek court-ordered medical intervention when the lack of medical or surgical care threatens the child’s life or long-term health. – All correspondence with a subject of the report and the records of the department and the county agency shall not reference child abuse and shall acknowledge the religious basis for the child’s condition. – The family shall be referred for general protective services, if appropriate. – This exclusion shall not apply if the failure to provide needed medical or surgical care causes the death of the child. – This exclusion shall not apply to any childcare service as defined under section 6303(a) of the PA CPSL (excluding an adoptive parent).
• Use of force for supervision, control, and safety pur- poses: Subject to subsection (d) (relating to the rights of parents), the use of reasonable force on or against a child by the child’s own parent or person responsible for the child’s welfare shall not be considered child abuse if any of the following conditions apply: – The use of reasonable force constitutes incidental, minor, or reasonable physical contact with the child or other actions that are designed to main- tain order and control. – The use of reasonable force is necessary to quell a disturbance or remove the child from the scene of a disturbance that threatens physical injury to per- sons or damage to property; to prevent the child from self-inflicted physical harm; for self-defense or the defense of another individual; or to obtain possession of weapons or other dangerous objects or controlled substances or paraphernalia that are on the child or within the control of the child. • Rights of parents: Nothing in this chapter shall be con- strued to restrict the generally recognized existing rights of parents to use reasonable force on or against their children for the purposes of supervision, control, and discipline of their children. Such reasonable force shall not constitute child abuse. • Participation in events that involve physical contact with child: An individual participating in a practice or competition in an interscholastic sport, physical educa- tion, recreational activity, or extracurricular activity that involves physical contact with a child does not, in itself, constitute contact that is subject to the reporting requirements of the PA CPSL. • Defensive force: Reasonable force for self-defense or the defense of another individual shall not be considered child abuse. – Reasonable force for self-defense or the defense of another individual (consistent with the provisions of 18 Pa.C.S. § 505, relating to use of force in self-protection, and § 506 (relating to use of force for the protection of other persons) shall not be considered child abuse. • Child-on-child contact: – Harm or injury to a child that results from the act of another child shall not constitute child abuse unless the child who caused the harm or injury is a perpetrator. – Notwithstanding paragraph (1) above, the follow- ing shall apply: Acts constituting any of the following crimes against a child shall be subject to the reporting requirements of the PA CPSL:
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