House Committee Strengthens Mandatory Reporting
Air Date:02/21/2012
The full house will decide on a bill that expands mandatory child abuse reporting requirements in South Dakota. State Senator Todd Schleckaway testified before the House Health and Human Services Committee on behalf of Senate Bill 154. He tells the committee of his service on a panel made of members of the Unified Judicial System and other workers that discussed mandatory abuse reporting.
Schleckaway says, "And I found out we're blessed in South Dakota, we have fairly solid mandatory reporting statutes already. But the recommendation from the committee-and this comes from the chief on down-was to add employees or volunteers of child advocacy organizations or child welfare service providers to the statutes. The intent is, these are folks on the front lines-obviously with kids in sometimes very difficult situations. And the more eyeballs we can have be mandatory reporters the better."
The bill includes workers and volunteers from such groups of South Dakota Voices for Children, the Court Appointed Special Advocate Program, and others who work closely with children. It moved out of committee and heads to the House for further debate.
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