Mandated reporting
...good or bad in the fight against child abuse?
As I noted in the last installment, the UK Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse recently recommended a scheme of mandated reporting of child sexual abuse with criminal penalties for failure to report. The recommendation comes at an interesting time, as others have recently raised questions regarding the propriety and effectiveness of mandated reporting laws.
According to US government data, there are over 4 million child abuse reports made annually, over 2/3 of those by mandated reporters. Of those 4.4 million or so reports, over 55% are unsubstantiated. Critics raise concerns that mandated reporting brings too many poor and minority families into the CPS system, overtaxes the child welfare system by requiring too many unnecessary investigations, and makes families with needs and struggles afraid to seek professional help.
On the other hand, there has over the past decade been a movement to expand mandated reporting. In 18 states, almost everyone who knows of a child’s abuse is a mandated reporter. In the wake of church-based abuse scandals, there are also legislative movements to remove the clergy-penitent exception in cases of child abuse. Supporters of those initiatives point out that many of the cases of child sexual abuse were known to pastors, priests, or clergy who did not report them.
No commentary on this issue today — just throwing it out there for discussion and thought. As always, we appreciate your opinions and feedback on these issues!
In other news:
In what had to be a terribly difficult decision, a judge in Miami is reunifying a 9-month old in foster care with his grandmother in Haiti. The foster parents have gone to federal court claiming that as a US-born child, he has the right to stay in the US. The counter argument, of course, is that he should be raised by family no matter where they are, and that a higher standard of living in the US doesn’t justify breaking his relations with kin.
More than 220 unaccompanied minor children are missing from hotels in the UK where they were placed by immigration authorities while awaiting their petitions for asylum.
Every week I come across more stories like this one about a teenager with autism stuck in an emergency room for weeks because there are no treatment facilities to properly care for him. We’ve got to end mental illness discrimination.
Legislation designed to end federal oversight of New Jersey’s child welfare system is stalled.
Yes it does -- three weeks is not enough!
When you are division director were new workers training for just 3 weeks then getting cases? Seems like a liability.