Pennsylvania House Bill HB1399

Pennsylvania 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 5/6/25
• Refer: 5/6/25

Caption

In child protective services, further providing for persons required to report suspected child abuse and for employees having contact with children, adoptive and foster parents.

Summary

HB1399 amends Pennsylvania’s child protective services laws to add a new category of mandated reporters and child-contact workers tied to film production. Specifically, it would require any adult, paid or unpaid, who is reasonably expected to have direct contact with children during the production of a film to report suspected child abuse when they have reasonable cause to suspect abuse. The bill also adds those same film-production workers to the list of individuals subject to the child abuse clearance and documentation requirements that apply to employees and volunteers who have contact with children. The measure is aimed at extending existing child-protection safeguards into the film industry, particularly productions that involve minors. It would require background-check and related compliance documentation before employment or service in that capacity, and employers or production supervisors would need to keep copies of the required records. The act would take effect 180 days after enactment, giving productions time to adjust their hiring and compliance practices.

Impact

HB1399 would expand Title 23’s mandated reporter and clearance provisions to cover adults involved in film productions who have direct contact with children. In practice, this would place film-production personnel in the same general compliance framework as other child-facing workers, requiring suspected-abuse reporting and pre-service child abuse clearances/documentation. The bill would affect employers, producers, administrators, supervisors, and volunteers in film production settings, while strengthening statutory child-protection obligations for productions involving minors.

Sentiment

Because there are no committee transcripts or recorded votes in the provided materials, there is no direct evidence of debate or formal support/opposition. Based on the bill text, the overall policy direction appears protective and preventive, with the likely intent of closing a child-safety gap in a specific industry. The absence of recorded controversy suggests the bill was at least introduced in a straightforward child-protection context, though no legislative sentiment can be confirmed from the available record.

Contention

The main point of potential contention is the scope of the new obligations on film productions, especially for unpaid adults, volunteers, and smaller productions that may not already operate under child-care style clearance rules. Stakeholders could question how broadly “reasonably expected to have direct contact with children” will be interpreted and whether the added reporting and documentation requirements create administrative burdens. No specific objections or supporters are identified in the provided record, so these are the likely issues raised by the bill’s structure rather than documented debate.