February 19, 2021 by Robert Franklin, JD, Member, National Board of Directors
I’ve often criticized child protective agencies for overreaching, for being too ready to take kids from their parents, even if only temporarily. I’ve also criticized the child protection system for incentivizing governmental interference in families. Stasi-like the system encourages neighbors, friends and complete strangers to report parents to child protective authorities at the least sign that a child may be abused or neglected. That can result in those with a vendetta against a parent contacting CPS with dubious or even false claims. And the system’s confidentiality ensures that those who do report remain unknown to everyone but CPS. And of course the child protective agency works almost entirely beyond the prying eyes of the press and, in some states, the legislature.
In short, it’s a system set up to over-report and overreact. Part and parcel of that system are “mandated reporters,” people who are required by law to report even the barest suspicion of child abuse or neglect. Those include medical personnel, teachers, the police, etc. Do those mandated reporters tend to “err on the side of caution” which is another term for over-reporting? I’ve long suspected that they do, but now I know it (Youth Today, 2/10/21).
The article is written by Richard Wexler who’s been for decades one of our most knowledgeable commentators on the child protection system. Wexler’s now on a committee of the Philadelphia City Council whose job it is to investigate the city’s child welfare system. So he took a course in how to be a “mandated reporter.” It’s a free online course that anyone can take. Unsurprisingly, Wexler’s commentary on the course is spot-on and revealing.
It was a tough year. Perhaps at some point your child became more aggressive or more anxious or more mistrustful or more prone to seek attention — or more withdrawn or more passive or too compliant. Maybe he flinches easily and avoids being touched. Maybe he just doesn’t get along with his peers. Maybe he feels very tired. Maybe he depends too much on adults. Or maybe he’s just not acting his age.
How about you? Are you socially isolated? Are you physically disabled? Emotionally challenged? Are you more stressed and anxious? Are you more frustrated or impatient? Does your mood change suddenly? Are you impulsive? Do you have issues with authority? Are you feeling emotionally insecure? Do you lack organizational skills?…
I only ask because in at least one state, Pennsylvania, even one of these “signs” or “risk factors” is enough to put you on the radar to possibly be reported to ChildLine, the state’s child abuse hotline, as a child abuser.
Yes, as so many of us suspected, even the most minor behavioral difficulties a child experiences, even the everyday stresses of being a parent can put both in the crosshairs of a state agency with the power to remove a child from its home and make life hell for the parents. That’s because mandated reporters are taught that any of those behaviors, plus countless others, could indicate abuse or neglect.
Plus, if a mandated reporter (or anyone else) observes any suspicious behavior on the part of a child or parent, then he/she is encouraged to report the matter to CPS. Why? Because, while the reporter may only have a hunch about the situation, the CPS caseworker is “an expert” and knows best what to do. Needless to say, the mandated reporter course fails to mention the financial incentives that encourage the agency to overreach. Nor does it mention that the caseworker may know little or nothing about child abuse or neglect.
As for “specially trained child welfare professionals,” once again, sometimes that’s true. But in Pennsylvania it’s also possible that the person sent out as a result of your report could be someone who just graduated college with a degree in English literature, has 12 credits of gerontology and got 10 to 12 weeks of training before making life-and-death decisions for children and families.
There are other things the training fails to mention.
It also is true that terrible things can happen if you report an innocent family, if the child is traumatized by the investigation, if the family is placed on a blacklist that can drive them deeper into poverty, and, especially, if the children are consigned to the chaos of foster care. Those terrible things can include the high rate of abuse in foster care itself.
The course ignores all this in favor of sending just one message over and over and over: Report! Report! Report!
As I’ve said too many times to count, taking a child from its parents is per se traumatic. The potential help removal can confer must always be balanced against the known trauma of separation and placement in an unknown place with unknown people. But mandated reporters aren’t told about the harm to children often inflicted by CPS. They’re not told even when they ask.
The message is summed up in a slide that begins with the question: “But if I report could that make things worse?”
The course replies:
“Report to ChildLine. You only need reasonable cause to suspect that a child is a victim of abuse. The consequences of not reporting your concerns could seriously endanger a child’s safety or even put a child’s life at risk.”
In other words, “there’s only one way to make matters worse – by not reporting.” That’s objectively untrue, but it’s the message mandated reporters receive.
So how does a reporter figure out if abuse or neglect is occurring? About that, the training is about as vague as possible.
Pennsylvania law requires mandated reporters to call ChildLine when they have “reasonable cause to suspect” abuse or neglect. But the legislature never defined “reasonable cause to suspect.” So it means whatever local authorities want it to mean…
In determining if you have “reasonable cause to suspect,” the training specifically says to consider “gut feelings.”
At least one doctor says that every time she sees a child for a sports injury, she reports the matter to CPS. So if little Andy or Jenny sprains an ankle playing soccer, look out. Mom and Dad may experience the knock on the door of CPS caseworkers come to search their house, ask intrusive questions and, if they don’t like the answers, whisk the child, ankle boot and all, away for parts and persons unknown.
The takeaway is what we’ve long suspected – that, in keeping with the rest of the child protective system, mandated reporters are encouraged to over-report, to bring families into the crosshairs of CPS whether they need it or not. The system is entirely calibrated to arrogate power to itself and it does so at the expense of family cohesion, parental authority and, all too often, child well-being.