News, Culture and NPR for Central & Northern Michigan
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
91.7FM Alpena and WCML-TV Channel 6 Alpena have been restored. Click here to learn more.

Michigan Senate passes ‘Wyatt’s Law’

Commons Helper user: Xnatedawgx
/
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/712_michigan_hofj_edit.jpg

The Michigan Senate passed a bill package today [WED] to tighten up the state’s tracking of child abuse cases

The legislation would create an electronic case management system to track child protective services data.

Democratic Senator Curtis Hertel says this has been an effort seven years in the making, with several rounds of negotiations.

“The only real goal is to make sure that when parents have somebody that’s in close contact with their kids, that they have a right to know if that person has been convicted of child abuse. There are different ways to do that and this version, I think, accomplishes that goal.”

The bills would enter the names of people the state health department confirmed committed child abuse or neglect into a central registry.

Parents could confirm if someone they feel is a threat to their child has been added to that list.