I recently spoke with Lisa Kane Brown – a Montgomery County, PA area attorney with considerable experience in juvenile matters and as a guardian ad litem – about Pennsylvania’s child abuse hotline, commonly known as “Child Line.” Child Line is very much a product of the expansion of Pennsylvania’s child abuse laws in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky/Penn State and church child abuse scandals. These laws greatly expanded the requirements for reporting and defining who is a “mandatory reporter” under the law. Ms. Kane Brown also discussed the mechanics of an abuse report, how they’re processed, and what a determination of “founded,” “indicated,” or “unfounded” means to the individual accused of abuse and how the report may stay with them.
The podcast link is below and it was a very informative discussion about Child Line.