When Child Abuse Is Suspected
School personnel have a responsibility to act when they see signs that a child is being maltreated. Schools differ on their protocols for reporting suspected cases of maltreatment, but the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act requires states to enact laws that require care professionals to set a process in motion that protects children from endangerment, in the home or otherwise. Read this transcript to see how one school’s protocol for reporting child maltreatment works. Please answer each questions with a minimum of 8-10 sentences.
Video Transcript:
>> In my school and as a teacher, all teachers are mandated reporters. And so a lot of times you see things that a child may come in with that you have concerns about, it could be abuse, it could be neglect. And so as a teacher it’s always my responsibility to report those things. And at our school, the protocol is to let the nurse and the counselor know. And so if I suspect that something is not quite right, I’ll let their counselor know who will talk to the nurse, and they’ll do an investigation, interview the child, and maybe call the family to see what’s going on. And then if there is something going on, we are mandated to report to the State any concerns that we may have.
At the school where the teacher works, to whom is the teacher required to report suspected cases of child maltreatment?
What needs to happen at this school once it has been reasonably confirmed that a child is being maltreated?
