Educating Teachers on Mandated Reporting

We wrote an earlier post about an elementary school principal in San Jose, California, who was convicted of misdemeanor failing to report suspected child abuse after a mother and her daughter told the principal about a second-grade teacher who acted "strangely" while alone with the girl in a classroom.

In Brentwood, California, the school district paid $950,000 to settle a lawsuit against one of its special education teachers, Dina Holder, who pleaded no contest to misdemeanor child abuse after throwing a five-year-old special needs student onto the floor and kicking him. The teacher's aides reported the incident to the school principal who waited two days before calling Child Protective Services (CPS), and never submitted a follow-up written report as required by law.

As a result of reports like these, the Bay Area News Group conducted a survey of California school districts and found that less than half that responded had provided annual training on recognizing and reporting suspected child abuse.  And, some districts didn't understand what the law requires. For example, some districts require employees to first report suspected abuse to school administrators rather than calling the authorities. However, the law requires mandated reporters to report their suspicions directly to CPS or police – reporting to school administrators does not fulfill their legal duty.

This survey prompted California's State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson, to send a letter to all school districts, requesting information about their child abuse training.  Torlakson also said he would support legislation to strengthen the state's mandated reporter law.

California Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan has introduced legislation that would require all school districts to adopt policies outlining child abuse reporting requirements and to review those policies annually with all employees.

However, William Grimm, senior attorney at Oakland's National Center for Youth Law, doesn't think the proposed legislation goes far enough. "A large part of the problem is the district's failure to provide training that helps school staff understand what should be reported. Until training is mandated for all school staff, there will continue to be victims whose suffering goes unreported."

Protect Our Kids Act of 2012

According to the polls, more Americans were outraged after the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut (75%), than after the September 11th terrorist attacks (65%).   

The same week that he announced proposals to reduce gun violence in response to the Newtown tragedy, President Obama launched a less-publicized movement to protect children when he signed the Protect Our Kids Act of 2012 which authorizes a Commission to study deaths caused by child abuse and neglect.  "The key to child abuse prevention in general  ... is awareness and then it's education.  And, people need to be aware that this is a problem," says Christal Wilcox Frost of Traverse Bay Area Child Advocacy.  

Data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2008 and 2009 found that eight children and teens (ages 0-19) die every day from gun injuries. 

Available statistics tell us that five children die from abuse or neglect every day in the US, the worst record of any industrialized nation.   However, Teri Covington, director of the National Center for Child Death Review says, “It’s been well-documented that those numbers are underreported, perhaps as high as 50 percent. Child abuse cases often don’t show up on death certificates because a lot show up as injuries or accidents.” 

The goal of the Protect Our Kids Act is to make more people aware that child abuse and neglect is a preventable and under-reported epidemic. Let's hope that the Commission's findings inspire the same outrage and call to action as the Newtown tragedy.

Making Sense of Statistics

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) just released its annual report of state child protective services (CPS) statistics, showing that the number of reported child abuse victims has dropped for the fifth year in a row – there were an estimated 681,000 reported victims of child abuse in 2011, down from 695,000 in 2010 and 723,000 in 2007. Child deaths caused by abuse were also the lowest in five years. However, what these statistics mean exactly is not clear.

One child welfare expert, Richard Gelles with the University of Pennsylvania, noted that the decline in reported child abuse is consistent with the decline in violent crime, homicide, and violence against women. Gelles also believes that the decline is due, in part, to more adults delaying marriage and child-bearing, reducing high-risk situations where young people raise children they cannot afford.

Another expert, David Finkelhor with the University of New Hampshire, expressed frustration over the lack of analysis of the trends, saying "it does appear remarkable that overall child maltreatment has declined given that unemployment has been so high, the housing and mortgage crisis has continued, and state and local budgets for family and child services have been cut."

And other child-protection advocates contend that the drop in reports simply reflects a tendency by CPS to investigate fewer cases because of tight budgets.

George Sheldon, HHS acting assistant secretary for children and families summed it up this way:  "We have made excellent progress over the past five years. But what this report tells me is that we still have 681,000 children out there who need our help.”