Pennsylvania Mandatory Child Abuse Recognition and Reporting (Renewal Licensure): Summary 13
Sexual abuse or exploitation (any of the following): The employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement, or coercion of a child to engage in or assist another individual to engage in sexually explicit conduct. Bodily injury: Impairment of physical condition or substantial pain. Serious mental injury: A psychological condition, as diagnosed by a physician or licensed psychologist, including the refusal of appropriate treatment. Serious physical neglect: Any of the following when committed by a perpetrator who endangers a child’s life or health; threatens a child’s well-being; causes bodily injury; or impairs a child’s health, development, or functioning. Perpetrator: A person who has committed child abuse (defined in Section 6303 of the CPSL). Child Abuse Indicators Bodily Injury Physical indicators: Unexplained injuries; unbelievable or inconsistent explanations of injuries; multiple bruises in various stages of healing; bruises located on the face, ears, necks, buttocks, back, chest, thighs, back of legs, and genitalia; bruises that resemble objects such as a hand, fist, belt buckle, or rope; injuries that are inconsistent with a child’s age/developmental level; and burns. Behavioral indicators: Fear of going home, extreme apprehensiveness/vigilance, pronounced aggression or passivity, flinches easily or avoids being touched, play includes abusive behavior or talk, unable to recall how injuries occurred or account of injuries that is inconsistent with the nature of the injuries, fear of parent or caregiver. Sexual Abuse or Exploitation Physical indicators: Sleep disturbances, bedwetting, pain or irritation in genital/anal area, difficulty walking or sitting, difficultly urinating, pregnancy, positive testing for
sexually transmitted infection r HIV, excessive or injurious masturbation. Legislative Updates to the CPSL The following list does not include all legislative updates but rather highlights some of the recent changes in legislation impacting mandated reporters and the process of recognizing and reporting suspected child abuse. In 2014, Pennsylvania passed Act 105 Pennsylvania's anti–human trafficking law, which defined human trafficking to include both sex trafficking and labor trafficking. The Pennsylvania legislature then enacted Act 115 of 2016, which amended Title 23 (Domestic Relations) and Title 42 (Judiciary and Judicial Procedure) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes to include human trafficking. In 2016, Pennsylvania passed Act 115 This act added engaging a child in a severe form of trafficking in persons or sex trafficking as a form of child abuse. This type of child abuse includes both sex trafficking and labor trafficking of children. Child sex trafficking: Any child under the age of 18 who is induced to engage in commercial sex is a victim of sex trafficking. Examples of sex trafficking of children includes prostitution, pornography, and sex tourism. Child labor trafficking: The use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection in involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. Human trafficking: The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a child for labor or services through use of force, fraud, or coercion. Under federal law, sex trafficking such as prostitution, pornography, and exotic dancing does not require there be force, fraud, or coercion if the victim is under age 18.
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