Tiona Collins walked out of her new home in Southwest Philadelphia and called her neighbor’s phone. When she returned, her house was filled with smoke and her 7-year-old son was playing with matches.
Collins had two younger children in her home, including a newborn, and she dealt with them through corporal punishment, just as her mother had done when Collins was young.
Shortly after, police arrived at her home in response to a neighbor’s report.
“They said I was trying to hurt my son,” she said. “That wasn’t the case. My reaction was not to hurt him, but to punish him.”
The episode landed her in jail for five days and separated from her children for a month. She was ordered to take parenting and anger management classes. She no longer disciplines her children with corporal punishment.
But 10 years later, Collins, now 36, is still facing the effects of that day. A former home health aide, she has been unable to attract clients because she was listed on Pennsylvania’s Childline and Abuse Registry, which is increasingly used by employers to conduct background checks.
Collins is not alone. According to , Black people in Pennsylvania are not only more likely to be placed on the registry, they are also more likely to have jobs that require a child abuse permit. Recent reports from Penn State Law School and Temple Law School calls for the abolition of the register.
The report claims there is little evidence to prove that this type of registration keeps children safe.The same was true in 2020, but it did not lead to an increase in child abuse cases. Other state requirements for criminal background checks act as a license for child abuse, the report said.
And more employers are choosing to use the registry as a permit even when workers do not come into contact with children, such as home health aides working with the elderly, warehouse workers, and hospital workers in remote areas.
As a result, black parents are excluded from the jobs necessary to care for their children, researchers say.
“I don’t want to use the word repeal because I think it scares people, but we’re getting there — Why do we need repeal in the first place?'” he said. Jennifer J. Leea professor of temple law who supervised the report.
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) said it will work to address any bias in the system but does not have the authority to eliminate the registry. “Changing the Child Protective Services Act itself would require a statutory change by the Pennsylvania General Assembly,” said spokesman Brandon Kwalina. DHS is legally required to make electronic reporting, such as a registry, available for child abuse allegations.”
» Read more: New lawsuit claims Pennsylvania’s ChildLine abuse registry violates state constitution
“People get lost in the process.”
Black people in Pennsylvania make up 12% of the population but make up nearly 23% of the people on the registry, according to the researchers. The overwhelming majority of people who come to Community Legal Services, a Philadelphia legal aid organization, to deregister are black women, with 78% of their clients being black and 73% women.
When county DHS begins a child abuse investigation, parents are also placed on the list.If so DHS has found this claim to be substantive, and parents will remain on the list for life unless they can successfully act and navigate the appeals process.
“People get lost in the process,” said Jamie Gallen, an attorney with Community Legal Services, who represents parents who try to be delisted.
They either missed the notification that they were put on the list and had to appeal within 90 days, or they didn’t understand how it would affect their jobs, or they didn’t realize what Galen said was an emergency. They may have found themselves stuck in a confusing appeals process. And even if they appeal, it can take more than a year, during which time parents can remain on the list and potentially be fired or miss out on future jobs.
Over the past three years, more than 90% of appeals have been successful, according to the report.
Community Legal Services and Philadelphia Law Firm Levain Stapleton Segal Cochran LLC Seth Clymer, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, is currently suing the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security over the registry, arguing that it is unconstitutional because people are not given a formal hearing before registration.
» Read more: Thousands of people in Pennsylvania are placed on child abuse registries without hearing rights. They say it’s ruining their lives.
A similar lawsuit was filed on behalf of Pennsylvania teachers, and a Commonwealth Court judge ruled in their favor in July, saying they should receive a hearing before being registered. Community Legal Services litigation applies to all workers, not just teachers.
Collins didn’t know she was on the list until she started working as a home health aide in 2021, but a few months later her agency told her she didn’t pass a background check. Since she was already caring for a client, she had to explain her situation and ask the client if they could still work together. The client said yes, but Ms. Collins subsequently stopped working there for unrelated reasons. Since then, she hasn’t been able to get anything new, which has been a big hit to her income.
Ms Collins is working on legal assistance to have her name removed from the register.
“It’s important for me to further my career financially, because in this economy today, it’s very difficult to live on one income,” she said.
She currently works as a security guard, but in the next few years she hopes to study to become a nurse or nursing assistant, which would require a child abuse permit.
“I just want to get back to helping people,” she said.
