HARRISBURG — To protect kids, Pennsylvania maintains a registry of people convicted and suspected of child abuse and neglect.
The registry is used for background checks across the commonwealth, and in theory keeps those who could harm children away from schools, workplaces, and other sensitive settings.
But the state places people on the list without legal proceedings in which they or an attorney can mount a defense. A lawsuit pending in Commonwealth Court alleges this violates a person’s right to due process and reputation under the Pennsylvania Constitution.
As that case plays out, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is targeting another controversial part of the registry: the lack of distinction between someone convicted of a crime like child sex trafficking and other incidents, like someone who left their kid in a vehicle unattended while running an errand.
A bill introduced earlier this year by state Sens. Tim Kearney (D., Delaware) and Judy Ward (R., Blair) would implement a tier system into the registry so that people accused of less severe offenses are treated less harshly.
“We're just trying to make the whole thing a little more balanced and a little more fair for everybody,” Kearney said of the bipartisan effort.
Renee, a mother in Philadelphia, was added to the registry after she didn’t schedule a recommended dental procedure for her teen son, who has severe autism.
Spotlight PA agreed to use only Renee's first name due to the stigma of being on the registry.
According to Renee and her attorney, this happened around the time her son's father died, and the family was grieving. Though the boy eventually went to the dentist and the delay caused no permanent medical issue, Philadelphia's Office of Children and Families put Renee on the child abuse registry, listing her as “indicated” in 2019.
The state applies this label when child welfare officials “find substantial evidence that abuse has occurred based on medical evidence, the child protective service investigation, or an admission by the perpetrator,” according to a Department of Human Services report.
After Renee was added to the registry, she lost her job at a child care center, and almost lost her housing as well. “I didn't have money to get food,” she said of that difficult period.
Of the 4,756 Pennsylvanians who were added to the child abuse registry in 2024, DHS told Spotlight PA that 98% of them are like Renee, and were indicated — but not convicted — of abuse or neglect.
Attorneys, advocates, parents, and a former child welfare worker who spoke to Spotlight PA questioned this setup, despite agreeing that state investigations that conclude people as “indicated” are sometimes accurate. But because the consequences of being a registered child abuser are severe, they argue the system should be more carefully designed.
Being placed on the registry is a lifelong designation, with few exceptions. Some employers automatically reject individuals with this status, regardless of the reason for their inclusion on the registry or the time elapsed since the incident occurred. People on this list can never volunteer at their kid’s school, their status can be used against them in custody hearings. The process of being added to the registry begins with an investigation.
Typically, someone reports suspected abuse or neglect to ChildLine, a 24/7 state hotline. ChildLine workers document the allegations, assess them, and then refer the case to an appropriate agency, usually a county child protective services office.
The accused is temporarily added to the registry while a caseworker determines if their actions might have harmed or endangered a child. State law mandates that county agencies have 60 days to complete the investigation.
If the caseworker decides there is sufficient evidence, the finding is reviewed by a child welfare official and the agency’s solicitor. If both sign off on the investigation’s findings, the accused is permanently listed on the registry.
Because being indicated is an administrative process, people don’t get to formally defend themselves.
Pennsylvanians can appeal their registry status, but have just 90 days to do so. That’s often not enough time, explained Jamie Gullen, managing attorney for the employment unit at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia.
People are notified they’ve been deemed “indicated” by mail. That doesn’t account for letters being lost or people moving, which is more likely for those dealing with housing instability, said Gullen. She added that some of her clients don’t grasp the implications of being indicated until it's too late to challenge it.
The registry also has disparities. Although Black Pennsylvanians comprise just 12% of the state's population, 23% of people on the registry are Black, according to a 2023 report from Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania that analyzed DHS data from 2015 to 2021.
The actual disparity might be more severe, as researchers were only able to obtain data from two of the state’s 67 counties.
When asked about these criticisms, a DHS spokesperson said the top priority of Pennsylvania’s child welfare system is to protect kids and to “hold accountable anyone found guilty of abuse or neglect.” She added that the registry and its notification system are mandated by the Protective Services Law, saying, “Only the General Assembly has the authority to pass legislation that would change those requirements.”
Under Kearney and Ward’s bill, Renee would likely have been placed at tier 3, the least punitive level. This means her registry status would not turn up on an employment background check after three years.
For tier 2 offenses, people would be eligible to work with kids after a decade. A person might be indicated at tier 2 if they failed to prevent “serious bodily injury” to a child.
Tier 1 would remain a lifelong designation and only be for the most severe offenses, including inflicting sexual or severe physical violence against a child.
The legislation would also limit employers’ access to the registry for background checks, making it dependent on a person’s tier level and whether that role requires contact with children.
So while Renee would not have been able to work in child care for three years, she might have had an easier time finding employment elsewhere. Renee now works in retail, where she earns a much lower hourly wage.
“I don’t know how I’m making it,” she said.
Limiting registry access for background checks would be a significant improvement, said Gullen. Currently, there are no limitations.
The employment attorney told Spotlight PA that she has clients with clean criminal records who get turned down for jobs as hospital janitors or hotel security guards because of registry issues that occurred two or three decades ago.
A mother and former teacher, Gullen said she understands why employers are overly cautious when it comes to child safety. “But on the other hand, it means that people are being asked to get clearances if they might bump into a child in the hallway.”
Alex Ciotti, a former Cambria County caseworker, recalls instances when state law required him to put someone on the registry despite questionable charges.
In one case, a bus driver accidentally left a napping kid on the bus. Ciotti didn’t agree that that person should be labeled a child abuser for the rest of their life when applying for jobs, but under state law, his hands were tied.
He told Spotlight PA that he supports the concept of a tier system for that reason, but warned that Kearney’s proposal might backfire and create more administrative burden for social service workers. He now represents some of those workers at union SEIU Local 668, and says their caseloads are already too high.
Ciotti said Kearney’s legislation could lead to an avalanche of appeals from people seeking to be moved to lower tiers on the registry. This would result in more admin for caseworkers, lessening their time in the field.
“When you're just continuing to add those responsibilities and those tasks onto the workers who are doing that job without any extra support, it's just a ticking time bomb,” he said.
If Pennsylvania really wants to improve the registry, Ciotti said, it should increase funding for child welfare agencies. A better-trained and better-paid workforce with a lower caseload would lead to higher-quality investigations, he argued.
Gullen agreed these situations are common, partly because caseworkers lack the time and sometimes training to properly investigate allegations. When corners get cut or understaffed agencies run out of time, they have more incentive to err on the side of caution and unnecessarily indicate people.
As proof, she points to state data showing individuals who appeal their registry status to the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals are overwhelmingly successful. Of the 166 decisions issued last year by administrative judges, 154 resulted in people being removed from the registry.
Another 540 case appeals filed in 20224 are pending. One person from Allegheny County who successfully appealed her indicated status told Spotlight PA it took about a year and a half between her hearing and the ruling. During that time, she remained on the registry.
Attorneys who spoke with Spotlight PA said that people may not realize that getting removed from the registry requires petitioning the state, which is a separate process from any county-level criminal or civil proceeding.
“It is shocking how complicated it gets,” said Marisa McClellan, a family law attorney and the former head of Dauphin County’s child welfare agency.
McClellan told Spotlight PA that the people who are most successful getting off the registry in her experience are those who hired an attorney. The facts of their cases are secondary, she said.
McClellan sees the registry as an important tool to keep kids safe, but acknowledged the collateral damage it can cause. And because there’s such high turnover among child welfare workers, she noted, inexperienced investigators can make lasting mistakes. That’s why she’d like Pennsylvania to provide people with some type of due process before permanently adding them to the registry.
“I might be in a minority of saying that, but that's always been my perspective,” she said.
Kearney’s bill does not address due process. Gullen, who helped draft the legislation, is representing a group of plaintiffs suing the state for violating their constitutional rights after they were indicated and placed on the registry.
The case is pending before Commonwealth Court, so lawmakers didn’t address due process in the bill to avoid the legislation potentially becoming obsolete, Gullen said.
It’s hard to know exactly what happened in Renee’s case. Though she said she had no previous interactions with child welfare, it’s possible that in addition to the delayed dental care, the investigation turned up other red flags that caused the caseworker to indicate her.
When Spotlight PA inquired about Renee with the Philadelphia Office of Children and Families, a spokesperson said state law prohibits the agency from commenting on a specific investigation.
Renee's attorney had partial access to the agency’s case files, but said that he wasn’t allowed to share any documents with Spotlight PA because they’re sealed under the Child Protective Services Law.
According to him, the only reason Renee ended up on the registry was the dental issue. Caseworkers otherwise concluded that her son was safe, but Pennsylvania law still required her to be indicated, he said. The only thing that did was stress her finances, he argued, which made it harder for Renee to care for her son during a difficult time for the family.
Renee eventually managed to clear her name.
This summer, she was expunged from the registry after appealing directly to the secretary of DHS. This was a bit of a Hail Mary since her request could have been denied. The process took several years and two attempts, the second with free aid from Community Legal Services.
But there is no recourse for the lost wages, or years of shame and trauma that being indicated caused.