Re: [ATSA-LIST] Neither confidential nor privileged?

["Jim Peters" <jim-peters@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Every state has mandatory reporting laws which require those who have
professional contact with children to report to state child protection
agencies when there is reason to believe a child is being abused or
neglected, or is at risk of being abused or neglected.  An excellent summary
of state mandatory reporting laws is available at
wwww.smith-lawfirm.com/mandatory_reporting.htm.  

In my view, any and all allegations of this sort must be reported to social
services and/or law enforcement, according to the procedures in your state.
Failure to report is a crime in most, if not all jurisdictions. Mandatory
reporters may not consider any possible defenses. If the defense is valid,
the staff person himself might want to make the report and cooperate
completely.  There is no special exception or privilege when the child is in
a hospital setting. 

Unfortunately, over the past two decades I have seen several cases where
mandatory reporters hesitated to follow the law, and actual abuse continued.
The civil ramifications of that are obvious. Equally unfortunate, I have
participated in two prosecutions of people (educators)who had the
information and failed to report. 

Jim Peters, J.D. 






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