Rep. Jim Rigby, R-Johnstown, is pictured at a news conference in 2025. Rigby and Rep. Kyle Mullins, D-Peckville, are proposing the creation of a fee on those convicted of child sex crimes to help increase funding to Child Advocacy Centers throughout the state.

Two state lawmakers – one a Democrat and one a Republican – are proposing a fund to help pay for Child Advocacy Centers that help victims of child sex abuse.

Rep. Kyle Mullins, D-Peckville, and Rep. Jim Rigby, R-Johnstown, are circulating a co-sponsorship memorandum for legislation they are drafting that would create the Child Victim Recovery Fund.

“We will soon introduce bipartisan legislation to strengthen Pennsylvania’s response to child abuse, exploitation, and trauma by creating a dedicated Child Victim Recovery Fund, funded entirely by fees paid by offenders, not taxpayers,” Rigby and Mullins wrote in their co-sponsorship memorandum.

The legislation, once drafted, would create a mandatory Child Victim Recovery Fee assessed when an individual is convicted, pleads guilty or nolo contendere, or enters diversion for an offense involving a child victim. The fee would be $1,000 for a felony, $400 for a misdemeanor, and $250 for diversion. Individuals on probation or parole for covered offenses would also pay a $15 monthly supervision surcharge.

Proceeds from the fee would go into the Child Victim Recovery Fund administered by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency and distributed to accredited CACs through a formula-based statewide grant to support forensic services, medical evaluations, trauma-informed mental-health care, family advocacy, and service expansion.

Such a fund could benefit the Warren Child Advocacy Center. A 2023 report by the state court system showed a nearly 30% increase in sex offender registrations in Warren County from 7 in 2018 to 20 in 2022. Melissa Mclean, Warren County Children’s Advocacy Center executive director, told the Times Observer earlier this year, has done over 300 interviews with children since she started at the center in 2019 – an average of roughly 42 a year. Mclean conducted 70 interviews in 2024, and 30 through the first six months of 2025. The center has a two-person staff and spends much of its time raising money.

“Every day, children across the commonwealth experience sexual abuse, physical abuse, exploitation, and violence with profound and lasting effects,” Mullins and Rigby said. “Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) are a cornerstone of the response, providing forensic interviews, medical exams, trauma-informed therapy, victim advocacy, and coordination with law enforcement, prosecutors, child welfare agencies, and medical and mental-health professionals. Despite their essential role, CACs remain chronically underfunded, limiting their ability to meet accreditation standards, expand mental-health services, and manage growing caseloads, especially in rural and underserved communities.”