Action Alert: Please call your Pennsylvania State Senators NOW to oppose dangerous bill!

We need your help to stop a bad bill in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

H.B. 1737 will receive a vote in the Senate Aging & Youth Committee as early as tomorrow, Wednesday, January 19. It is a short bill giving Child Welfare Services (CWS) authority to seek a court order to compel parents to undergo drug and alcohol testing in certain abuse and neglect investigations. It sounds like a good bill. But in practice, it would be used by CWS case workers to pressure parents to submit to a drug or alcohol testing in any investigation meeting the requirements of the bill, even if it’s merely an anonymous and false allegation from an irate neighbor or grumpy relative. This bill increases the power of CWS at the expense of families and children and is unnecessary. CWS has plenty of power to investigate allegations of child abuse and neglect without this bill.

ParentalRights.org is partnering with organizations in Pennsylvania from across the political spectrum to defeat this bill. You can see our letter here, and the letter from the ACLU of Pennsylvania here. 

Please contact your Pennsylvania senator (via either phone or the online contact form) and ask them to oppose H.B. 1737. If you send your senator an email using the online contact form, feel free to link to our letter and the ACLU of PA’s letter against H.B. 1737. Your message can be as simple as this:

 “Please oppose H.B. 1737. It runs contrary to recent precedent from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, is not necessary to protect children, and will lead to more families being turned upside down.” 

Thank you for standing with us in this fight.

Sincerely,

Will Estrada

President, ParentalRights.org