2-27-14 Courtesy of YNN. In his 2014 State of the County, Mark Poloncarz discussed a series of bills his administration is drafting to overhaul the state’s Child Protective Services.
“The most important thing I think that we need to do is give CPS workers the powers they need to go out and protect children,” said County Executive Poloncarz, D-Erie County.
Poloncarz said his plan would allow CPS workers immediate access to important medical and public safety information.
“I think most people would be shocked to find out that CPS workers don’t have the right to pull up the criminal record of an individual in a household,” he said.
Other ideas include increasing penalties for criminal endangerment of a child and making it a felony to intentionally falsely report abuse.
“We need to have CPS workers out there protecting children who are at risk, not going out there and basically having to review these same files over and over because one spouse is mad at another spouse or a boyfriend is mad at a girlfriend or vice versa,” he said.
Poloncarz said bills currently in the state Senate and Assembly actually make it harder for CPS workers to do their job.