More than 240,000 students in Pennsylvania attend school districts that lack updated policies on how to report child abuse, according to state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale.

Thankfully, school districts in Butler County are not counted among them.

The auditor general announced a review by his staff last week of how school districts across the state report child abuse. According to his office's findings, a total of 38 districts — including Butler County — updated their policies after the auditor general called for them to do so.

Three other districts didn't have a policy but instituted one after the auditor general's call. However, 101 school districts in the state have a policy, but with outdated policy language, while one in Perry County doesn't have one at all.

The state's Public School Code requires that school personnel receive training that directs them to first call ChildLine to report concerns about abuse or neglect, then directs them to inform a designated school official.

We agree with DePasquale that it's “completely unacceptable” for any district in Pennsylvania to have policies that are not up-to-date on how to deal with suspected child abuse. In 2014, the state took steps to prevent reports of suspected child abuse from being swept under the rug in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky case.

We are glad that Butler County is among those that have updated their policies, although we'd hope that the county continues to do so without prompting by the state auditor's office. It is disturbing, however, that so many other counties in the state have outdated policies. According to Childhelp, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to the prevention and treatment of child abuse, more than 3.6 million referrals are made to child protection agencies every year regarding child abuse, and these referrals involve more than 6.6 million children. The United States is ranked as one of the worst among industrialized nations, losing on average four to seven children every day to child abuse or neglect.

A 2017 report by Pennsylvania's Department of Human Services found that substantiated reports of child abuse increased from 1.6 per thousand children in 2016 to 1.8 per thousand in 2017. Sexual abuse was the most common type of abuse, while physical abuse was the second most common. Parents were most frequently the persons responsible for the abuse.

So, it is outrageous that any school district would lag behind on keeping up with the latest policies to prevent children from being abused.

A number of districts — including some in Butler County — have recently undertaken initiatives to keep schools safe from violence on their campuses. This is great, but districts should focus an equal amount of attention to the violence taking place during after school hours. DePasquale said that 79 percent of students are currently attending schools in districts with up-to-date policies. That's not enough.

— NCD