CREATING SAFE ENVIRONMENTS TO

PROTECT CHILDREN: HB 1072 & HB 1571

Comprehensive Child Sexual Abuse Prevention

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT PREVENTING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

 Child sexual abuse is a complex problem requiring a comprehensive approach.
 Adults must bear prime responsibility for protecting children from sexual abuse.
 Prevention, in the form of adult-focused training and screening, is the most important and most
often overlooked tool available to Maryland to fight sexual violence against children.
 Failing to provide adult-focused training and screening in schools and youth serving organizations
leaves kids vulnerable both before and/or after abuse occurs.

THE CURRENT PROBLEM

 Child sexual abuse affects as many as 1 in 10 children.i
 These children are at increased risk for negative mental and physical health problems across their life
course.
 The cost of child sexual abuse is estimated to be more than $280,000 per victim across the lifespan.ii
 11.1% of the participants in the Maryland Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)
indicated that they were sexually abused before the age of 18.iii
 Public attitudes on child sexual abuse prevention: 92% of Americans believe child sexual abuse is a
major problem. 93% believe that institutions are failing to provide adequate child sexual abuse
policies. 83% believe training is vital to preventing child sexual abuse. 8 in 10 would like to know
more about how to spot the signs of child sexual abuse.iv
 An estimated 1 in 10 students will experience school employee sexual misconduct by the time they
graduate from high school.v
 A teacher will be transferred to three different schools before they are reported to the police. This
practice is referred to at the national level as Passing the Trash.vi

HOW THIS LEGISLATION ADDRESSES THE PROBLEM

 Requires child serving agencies and youth serving organizations receiving state funding to institute
Comprehensive Child Sexual Abuse Prevention training, policies, and guidelines that address:
1. Screening and selecting employees and volunteers
2. Guidelines on interactions between individuals (Codes of Conduct)
3. Monitoring behavior
4. Ensuring safe physical environments
5. Responding to inappropriate behavior, breaches in policy, and allegations and suspicions
of child sexual abuse
 6. Training about child sexual abuse preventionvii
 Requires education of all adults including teachers, employees and volunteers that will provide them
with the ability to:
 Recognize sexually offending behaviors in adults and signs in adults that might indicate they
pose a sexual risk to children.
 Recognize behaviors that might indicate a child or youth has been a victim of sexual abuse.
 Support the healthy development of students, children and youth by building protective factors
to mitigate against their sexual victimization.
 Requires the establishment of policies that support the prevention of, and response to, sexual abuse
through:
 Comprehensive screening of prospective employees and volunteers to eliminate “passing the
trash” among educational institutions and/or other youth serving organizations. Passing the
trash occurs when a teacher accused of sexual abuse/misconduct resigns, retires or is
terminated and is allowed to quietly move to another school/school district without his or her
new employer being alerted to the allegations of misconduct.
 Prohibiting the practice by banning confidentiality/separation agreements in instances of sexual
misconduct/violence, requiring information sharing between employers, and mandating annual
training of all school community stakeholders to recognize and report sexual misconduct.
 Development and implementation of codes of conduct to identify inappropriate boundary-
violating behaviors that if left unchecked could escalate to reportable sexual offenses; including,
methods to interrupt behaviors by school/other personnel that don’t reach the level of abuse.
 The assessment and modification of physical facilities and spaces to reduce opportunities for
sexual abuse.
 Ongoing training of staff, contractors, and volunteers about adults and child-on-child sexual
abuse.
 Implementation of evidence based interventions that effectively prevent youth-on-youth sexual
harassment and sexual violence, such as “Shifting Boundaries” or “Safe Dates” middle-school
curricula; or, implementing evidence-informed interventions in the context of a formal
evaluation of efficacy.

i
Townsend, C. & Rheingold, A.A. (2013). Estimating a child sexual abuse prevalence rate for practitioners: A review of child sexual abuse prevalence
studies. Retrieved from www.D2L.org/1in10
ii
Letourneau, Brown, Fang, Hasson, & Mercy, (2017) The economic burden of child sexual abuse in the United States.Manuscript under review.
iii
Maryland Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Updated October 2017 http://phpa.dhmh.maryland.gov/ccdpc/Reports/Pages/brfss.aspx
iv
American Attitudes Towards Child Sexual Abuse. A Landmark Study" by Darkness to Light. (See attached infographic)
v
U.S. Department of Education [ED]. (2004). Educator sexual misconduct: A synthesis of existing literature. Washington, DC: Office of the Under Secretary.
vi
Government Accountability Office. (2010). K–12 education: Selected cases of public and private schools that hired or retained individuals with histories of sexual
misconduct. United States Government Accountability Office, GAO-11-200.
vii
Preventing. Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-serving Organizations: Getting Started on Policies and Procedures. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 2007.