Lesson 4: Abuse and Mandated Reporting

Children cannot stop child abuse...adults can.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:

  • Complete an online quiz and receive your mandated reporter certificate
  • Discuss the Maine Child Care Regulations regarding abuse, neglect and mandated reporting

Teaching

Read Chapter Six (pages 72-84) in The Early Years Matter

Child abuse and neglect is a very tough topic to discuss but critical in the early childhood field.

Unfortunately, in working with children you will likely have to deal with these types of issues as children ages 3 and under are more likely to experience abuse and neglect.


You may know some families who you believe have their priorities all wrong and do not provide the most nutritious meals or bathe their children every day.  It is VERY IMPORTANT that you do not confuse the culture of the family with abuse and neglect.  Yes, there is a line but it can be blurry.  A family without a permanent home or running water may not be able to provide daily baths for their children, but it does not mean they are abusing or neglecting them. As you can see in the figure below, they have listed several factors that could point to neglect if the parent consistently fails to provide some of the basic needs.

It is important to always discuss with your supervisor different scenarios if you believe there is abuse or neglect and remember that we are caregivers, not investigators.


Being a mandated reporter means that you are required by law to report suspected abuse.  We are NOT investigators and only have to report based on suspected abuse. 


In mandated reporter training you will learn about warning signs, the process and how to deal with child disclosures.  It is important to remember to leave the questions up to DHHS!!!!!!  Again, we are NOT investigators, we are caregivers.  We are good at our jobs which is to provide comfort, keep detailed documentation and developmentally appropriate practice.  If we suspect abuse, neglect and/or a child confides in us, we provide comfort, document, make a report, and let DHHS handle the rest.


Often times, making a report can be very scary.  We work so hard to build relationships with families, and making a report could impact the hard work you are doing.  However, we need to think about what is best for the child.  The long term effects of child abuse and neglect is astonishing and we need to think about the brain development and what is best for the child. 

 
Within Our Reach:  A National Strategy to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities 

 
https://eliminatechildabusefatalities.sites.usa.gov/files/2016/03/CECANF-Report_Fact-Sheet-final-3.17.16.pdf


The Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities (CECANF) was established by the Protect Our Kids Act of 2012 to develop a national strategy and recommendations for reducing child fatalities resulting from abuse and neglect. The establishment of the Commission followed numerous congressional hearings, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report reviewing this issue, as well as far too many stories highlighting these deaths as preventable. Beginning in 2014, twelve Commissioners, appointed by the president and Congress, began a two-year process of holding public hearings in 11 jurisdictions to hear from state leaders, local and tribal leaders, child protection and safety staff, advocates, parents, and more.  
Key Findings:  

  • An estimated four to eight children a day, every day, die from abuse and neglect.   
  • Children who die from abuse and neglect are overwhelmingly young; approximately one-half are less than a year old, and 75 percent are under 3 years of age. 
  • A call to a child protection hotline is the best predictor of a child’s potential risk of injury death before age 5.
  • A number of children who die were not known to child protective services (CPS) but were seen by other professionals (e.g., health care), highlighting the importance of coordinated and multisystem efforts.  
  • Access to real-time information about families is vital to child protection efforts, but legal and policy barriers prevent this from occurring.
  • We do not know the exact number of children who die from abuse and neglect, although we know it is critical to have this data to understand what works. 
  • We know a lot about what puts children at risk, but there are few promising solutions and only one evidence-based practice shown to reduce fatalities—the Nurse-Family Partnership.  

The report outlines a strategy for how to realign our organizations and communities to protect our children at highest risk of fatality from abuse or neglect. CPS agencies play a critical role, but waiting until a severe injury has occurred to allow CPS to intervene misses numerous opportunities to protect these children in their communities across this nation. By combining a proactive approach to child safety with a more strategic response, we hope to make prevention of fatalities from abuse and neglect standard practice.   
All of our recommendations should be implemented as soon as possible, but we highlight 10 that lie at the heart of our strategy.     
Recommendations to save children’s lives today: We believe the following six recommendations should be implemented immediately: 

  1. States should undertake a retrospective review of child abuse and neglect fatalities from the previous five years to identify family and systemic circumstances that led to fatalities. Congress and the administration have significant roles in the implementation and oversight of this recommendation. 
  2. Every state should review their policies on screening reports of abuse and neglect to ensure that the children most at risk for fatality—those under age 3—receive the appropriate response, and they and their family are prioritized for services, with heightened urgency for those under the age of 1.    
  3. The administration should lead an initiative to support the sharing of real-time information among key partners such as CPS and law enforcement. 
  4. State receipt of funding from the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) should be contingent on existing child death review teams also reviewing life-threatening injuries caused by child maltreatment.  
  5. All other programs—such as Medicaid and home visiting programs—should be held accountable for ensuring their services are focused on reducing abuse and neglect fatalities. 
  6. Federal legislation should include a minimum standard designating which professionals should be mandatory reporters of abuse or neglect, and these professionals should receive quality training.    

Recommendations that lay the groundwork for our national strategy: Large-scale reform does not happen overnight. Four additional recommendations are critical to begin now:  

  1. Elevate the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’) Children’s Bureau to report directly to the Secretary of HHS.  
  2. Using information from their review of fatalities, every state should be required to develop and implement a comprehensive state plan to prevent child abuse and neglect fatalities. 
  3. Congress should conduct joint committee hearings on child safety, provide financial resources to support states, and encourage innovation to reduce fatalities. While all Commissioners agreed that funding is needed to support these efforts, no consensus was achieved on the amount of funds to be provided.  
  4. Congress should support flexible funding in existing entitlement programs. Some high-cost interventions, such as long-term group care and generic parenting programs, have been demonstrated as less effective. Reinvesting resources might improve outcomes.    

Throughout our process, we identified three groups of children who present unique challenges when it comes to preventing child abuse and neglect fatalities: children known to the CPS system today who are at high risk of an abuse or neglect fatality, American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) children for whom little if any data exist, and African American children who die from abuse and neglect at a rate that is two-and-a half times greater than that of white or Hispanic children. The following are key recommendations offered to Congress, the administration, and state and tribes to address these groups: 

  1. Analyze data from past fatalities to identify the children who are at greatest risk right now. 
  2. Improve and support data collection about child abuse and neglect fatalities of AI/AN children, and work to improve collaborative jurisdictional responsibility for these children’s safety. 
  3. Conduct pilot studies of place-based intact family courts in communities with disproportionate numbers of African American child maltreatment fatalities.  

A Public Health Approach to Child Safety: The Commission’s recommendations reflect a public health approach to child safety that engages a broad spectrum of community agencies and systems to identify, test, and evaluate strategies to prevent harm to children based on three interrelated core components: 

  1. Leadership and Accountability: Strong leaders at every level—federal, state, local, and tribal—are needed.  
  2. Decisions Grounded in Better Data and Research: We need to collect, share, and utilize real-time, accurate data to ground child protection decisions.  
  3. Multidisciplinary Support for Families: Everyone has a role. Cross-system prevention and earlier intervention are critical to building and sustaining healthier families and communities.  

Conclusion:  The Commission’s recommendations will support stronger CPS agencies that are better able to use data to identify and protect children with greater accountability. CPS agencies remain critical, leading the effort and responding quickly. But they share the responsibility for child safety with multiple partners that touch these vulnerable families in these communities. States, tribes, counties, and local communities play a critical role in eliminating fatalities from abuse and neglect, but the president and Congress have the opportunity to provide the necessary tools.

Assessment

Lesson 4 Assignment

Complete the Mandated Reporter Training on the Maine.gov website via the following link. The training is available in the middle of the page under Training  Complete an online, self-paced training covering all aspects of mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse and/or neglect in Maine. When you complete the training, complete the quiz and save a copy of the Certificate of Completion to load as your assignment for this week

Link to Maine PP training http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/ocfs/mandated-reporters.shtml

Lesson 4 Discussion A

If you are (or will be) working in a liscensed child care facility, there are regulations you MUST follow. Below you will find the exact wording fromRules for the Licensing of Child Care Facilities in regards to reporting child abuse and neglect. (Click HERE to view a full copy of these regulations.)

  1. REPORTING CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT

    2. 1.1 Mandatory reporting. The facility must make all childcare personnel aware of their status and responsibility as mandated reporters to the Department of Health and Human Services when there is reasonable cause to suspect abuse or neglect of a child under the age of eighteen (18).

    1.1.1. When reports are made in good faith, reporters are immune from civil or criminal liability for the act of reporting or participating in the investigation or proceeding.

      1.1.2. The department will respect a reporter's request for confidentiality to the extent possible. The identity of reporters will not be revealed unless required to protect the child from serious harm.

    1.2. Policy for handling suspected instances of child abuse or neglect. The facility must adopt written policy for handling suspected instances of child abuse or neglect in accordance with Maine law.

    1.3. Facility cooperation in investigations. The facility staff shall cooperate in the investigation of allegations of abuse and neglect.

Did you know that as an early childhood educator working in a licensed facility, you are required to be a mandated reporter?  How do you feel about having to make a report?

Lesson 4 Discussion B


Within chapter 6, there are several strategies to strengthen families to prevent abuse and neglect.  Which strategy speaks to you and why?