April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. In recent weeks, pinwheels have been placed in lawns around the state that are meant to serve as a reminder that child abuse is real and that more can be done to protect children. According to child protective services agencies, approximately 702,000 children in the United States were victims of child abuse or neglect in 2014 and thousands more cases go unreported. While in recent years there has been a successful effort by law enforcement, child protective services, victim advocates and others to strengthen laws to help prevent child abuse, more can be done.

The number one concern that I hear from advocates and law enforcement who are involved in preventing and investigating child abuse is that New York State’s penalties for endangering the welfare of a child are not strict enough. Under current law, only misdemeanor penalties can be imposed for committing such a crime which can range from leaving a child in the car unsupervised to extreme physical abuse. Often, up to one year of jail time is the maximum sentence for misdemeanor penalties regardless of the severity of abuse. It is for this reason I am sponsoring a bill that would create a class D felony offense for the crime of endangering the welfare of a child. Making this crime a felony offense would give law enforcement officials more leverage when investigating and prosecuting these terrible crimes. Moreover, a change in the law will make the penalty more appropriate in the event a person is convicted. After all, aggravated cruelty to an animal is a felony offense, shouldn’t we have at least a similar penalty for someone who endangers the welfare of a child.

New York also should enact legislation that would make it a felony for failure to report a child missing within 24 hours. The need for such a law was brought to light after the Casey Anthony case in Florida. As some may recall, in that case, Casey Anthony failed to report that her child, Caylee, had been missing for 31 days. Law enforcement charged her with murder of her 2-year-old daughter after Caylee’s body was found nearly six months after the child’s disappearance. Much to the surprise of many Americans, the jury found Casey not guilty of murder or child abuse. During the court proceedings, prosecutors continually pointed out that Casey Anthony failed to report her daughter missing until 31 days after her disappearance. Unfortunately, there was no provision in Florida law that Casey violated; failure to report a missing child was not a crime unto itself. Had such a law been in place in Florida, prosecutors could have ensured that Casey Anthony served more jail time. Unfortunately, a similar tragic case had happened in Utica, New York, where a father filed a missing person’s report several weeks after his 9-month-old child went supposedly missing. The case was suspicious from the start and the investigation later determined that the father was responsible for his son’s death. For most people, it is unthinkable how a parent could wait to report a missing child unless there had been foul play. The Casey Anthony case and the case in Utica demonstrate why the legislature should pass Caylee’s law.

There have been some improvements made to our laws that help protect children. Last year, I sponsored legislation that is intended to give investigators of missing children more immediate access to past child abuse and neglect records. The change came about after police began investigating the disappearance of a 5-year-old in Albany County and were denied access to his records by the local Child Protective Services in 2014. With the passage of this law, we hope that this will lead to better communication between Child Protective Services and Law Enforcement in instances where information is vital.

Signs of child abuse vary from withdrawal from friends, depression or anxiety, attempting to run away or a reluctance to go home. To learn more about the signs of abuse, visit http://ocfs.ny.gov/main/prevention/signs.asp. Experts recommend talking to children about abuse and sex abuse. These discussions can start between a caregiver and a child as early as three years of age. The State Office of Child and Family Services offers tips at http://ocfs.ny.gov/main/publications/pub1154text.asp.

If you suspect child abuse, please call the New York State Child Abuse hotline at 1-800-342-3720. If you have any questions or comments regarding these or other state issues, please contact me. My office can be reached by mail at 200 North Second Street, Fulton, New York 13069, by email at barclayw@assembly.state.ny.us, or by calling (315) 598-5185. You also can find me, Assemblyman Barclay, on Facebook.