Rep. Valerie Gaydos, R-Moon, is pictured earlier this year in the House of Representatives.

A state lawmaker wants to close what she says is a loophole in the state’s sex offender reporting requirements.

Rep. Valerie Gaydos, R-Moon, is circulating a co-sponsorship memorandum for legislation that will close a loophole in the state’s residency reporting requirements for registered sex offenders. Under current law, individuals required to register under Megan’s Law must report any address where they reside for 30 or more consecutive days. Gaydos said constituents recently brought to her attention a situation involving a registered offender who was spending a significant amount of time at an alternate location but was able to avoid reporting that address because the individual did not remain there for 30 consecutive days.

As a result, Gaydos said, neighbors and local law enforcement may not have an accurate picture of where a registered offender is actually living or spending significant time, limiting the effectiveness of Megan’s Law and undermining its intent to promote public safety through transparency.

“My legislation would remove the word ‘consecutive’ from the residency reporting requirement,” said Gaydos. “Under the change, individuals subject to Megan’s Law would be required to report any address where they reside for a total of 30 or more days within a calendar year, regardless of whether those days occur consecutively.”

Megan’s Law in Pennsylvania has its roots in the mid 1990s, when Gov. Tom Ridge called a special session on crime that led to the passage of Megan’s Law in October 1995. In 2025, Gov. Edward Rendell signed into law Senate Bill No. 92, which made significant changes to Megan’s Law, including requiring information on all registered sexual offenders to be available to the public through the Internet. The law was expanded in 2011 when Gov. Tom Corbett signed into law Senate Bill No. 1183, known as the “Adam Walsh Bill”, to bring Pennsylvania into compliance with the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. The state law made Pennsylvania part of a coordinated and comprehensive national sexual offender registry, expanded the list of sexual offenses that require sexual offender registration; and extended sexual offender registration requirements to juvenile offenders in some cases.