Feb 17, 2005 2 min read

The Senate Committee on Aging and Youth recently unanimously approved State Sen. Richard A. Kasunic’s “Kristen’s Law” bill that would require child welfare agencies to keep a photograph with the child’s case file at all times. “I’m both heartened and encouraged that the committee put this legislation at the top of its agenda and quickly approved it,” Kasunic said. “I am hopeful that the full Senate will act on this bill soon.”

Kasunic said he introduced the bill to prevent the kind of abuse that 4-year-old Kristen Tater endured in her starvation death in Kittanning, Armstrong County, in 2003. Her parents locked her in the attic without food or water for five days. Her emaciated body was found in a small cooler thrown out with the trash. She weighed only 11 pounds at the time of her death.

Since no photograph was included in the child’s case file when her case was transferred between agencies, it is believed that a caseworker who visited Kristen’s new home just weeks before her death mistakenly identified another child as Kristen.

“With case files transferred between child welfare workers and agencies throughout Pennsylvania, the accurate identity of a child can easily be lost in the shuffle,” Kasunic said. “Mandating that a photo of the child accompany each case file would help prevent parents and others from concealing abuse.”

The Fayette County lawmaker said his bill (Senate Bill 63) would not be too costly or onerous for child welfare agencies since it merely stipulates that some form of photographic identification accompany the child’s case file. Many counties throughout Pennsylvania already include photos in their case files.

Kasunic said he was also pleased by an amendment to the bill, sponsored by Democratic Leader Robert J. Mellow (D-Lackawanna), requiring that cast photographs be updated at least once a year.