ST. LOUIS — Gov. Jay Nixon signed three bills before noon Tuesday morning that seek to protect newborns and children from health risks and sexual assault.
The three bills include
- – Senate Bill 230 — sponsored by Sen. Dan Brown, R-Phelps County — which establishes’s Chloe’s Law, requiring screenings for critical congenital heart disease for all newborns starting January 1, 2014;
- – House Bill 505 — sponsored by Rep. Marsha Haefner, R-St. Louis — which speeds up the reporting process of sexual assault or violence against a child; and
- – Senate Bill 256 — sponsored by Sen. Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City — which reestablishes the Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Abuse of Children and increases provisions to the Safe Place for Newborns Act by expanding the different safe locations and the numbers of days after birth that a parent can’t be prosecuted for the abandonment of the child when bringing them to a designated safe place.
Nixon signed SB 230 and HB 505 during a visit to the St. Louis Children’s Hospital Tuesday morning where he was flanked with two cabinet members, representatives from both sides of the aisle and the mother of the young girl who “Chloe’s Bill,” SB 230, is named after.
“Our future depends on the young, but until then they depend on us to keep them healthy and safe,” Nixon said after discussing the large amount of support these bills had in the legislature. HB 505 and SB 230 garnered almost complete support from both chambers with just more than a handful of House members voting no on SB 230.
During his signing, Nixon emphasized the importance of screening infants for congenital heart disease so action can be taken before it’s too late, as well as the need for mainstreaming the reporting process for sexual assault or violence against a child to prohibit events like the Jerry Sandusky case in Pennsylvania from happening again.
For HB 505 sponsor, Rep. Marsha Haefner, R-St. Louis, the signing of this bill is the capstone of the work done by a bipartisan task force that helped craft the legislation after reviewing standing policies on sexual assault reporting for those mandated by law to report, such as school employees.
“Instead of going up a chain of command, reports will be made directly to the Children’s Division [of the Department of Social Services,” Haefner told The Missouri Times. “We saw in Pennsylvania that as [the reports] went up the chain of command, people failed to pursue that information. What we’re doing is a big step in moving forward to keep children safer.”
After the signing, Nixon took questions from reporters about the amount of vetoes he’s doled out this year compared to years past, the request for a special session over the Normandy school transfers, which he said wasn’t going to happen, and what’s in store for the Rams.
Ashley Jost is no longer with The Missouri Times. She worked as the executive editor for several months, and a reporter before that.
