Corbett Budget Addresses Child Abuse

Robert Swift
Wilkes-Barre Citizens Voice

The governor’s proposed budget provides $2 million in state aid for the first time to help Children’s Advocacy Centers do their work, a key recommendation of a special task force that called for an overhaul of the child protection system following the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

The report of the Task Force on Child Protection, issued in 2012, calls the centers the “single most important tool in the investigation of child abuse” and recommends that every child in Pennsylvania be within a two-hour drive of one.

The $2 million would go to set up advocacy centers in areas of Pennsylvania that lack them and support existing centers if lawmakers approve.

“This is something we’ve worked hard for,” said Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler, the task force chairman, on Friday. “I’m delighted the governor has put this in.”

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