Today, Congressman Tim Walz and Congressman John Boozman announced they have introduced legislation to ensure that child protection professionals have access to quality training to combat child abuse. The Child Protection Training Act would designate funds to the National Child Protection Training Center (NCPTC) to help in their efforts to train students and child protection professionals to better recognize, react and respond to abuse.
"As a parent and a teacher, protecting our children is an important priority for me," said Congressman Tim Walz. "I am proud to represent the National Child Protection Training Center in Winona. They are a national leader in training students and child protection professionals to work with cases of child abuse and neglect. With this legislation, the NCPTC can continue its efforts to significantly reduce and end all forms of child maltreatment."
"Child Protection Training Centers are a vital tool to providing our communities with the resources to best serve the needs of young victims," said Congressman John Boozman. "Our children deserve the best opportunities we can provide to keep them safe and help them overcome issues resulting from abuse. This will enable a more reliable form of funding to equip our child protection professionals with the knowledge they need to adequately respond to the needs of children during a critical time in their lives."
The NCPTC, a public-private partnership, currently relies on yearly appropriation requests. This bill would authorize the NCPTC under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act to ensure that it has steady, reliable resources for its critical work.
"This legislation will go a long way to protecting the children who need it most," said Jim Schmidt. "I want to thank Congressman Walz and Congressman Boozman for introducing it and for being champions for those children who often cannot speak for themselves. We know that training professionals who work with children to recognize and report signs of abuse is the best way to end abuse. This legislation will give us more reliable resources to continue that training and to help children recover from abuse as quickly as possible."
"We at Northwest Arkansas Community College are extremely excited to hear that Congressmen Boozman and Walz have introduced the Child Protection Training Act in the House of Representatives. Child abuse is a national problem and this bill is an investment in our children. As the Southern Regional Training Center for the National Child Protection Training Center, the legislation will greatly expand the training and education already being delivered to today and tomorrow's professionals in all areas of the country. This bill can help end child abuse as we know it today," said Dr. Steven Gates, Senior VP for Institutional Advancement at Northwest Arkansas Community College.
HR 5847 would authorize $3 million for the NCPTC to establish four regional training centers and $ 2 million to create a grant program to assist in the development and expansion of forensic interviewing training, and a model university curriculum on child abuse and maltreatment.