Demand More Education for Mandated Reporters

Teachers, social workers, police officers, and day care workers are some of the people who are mandated reporters. What is a mandated reporter? A mandated reporter is an individual who is required by law to report any suspicion of child abuse or neglect. Often the training that these mandated reporters receive is to watch a video on child abuse and/or receive a face to face training once. The lack of intense training is a problem due to the fact that children’s lives are at stake. Children rely on their parents to protect them and when their parent is not doing this to the best of their ability, it becomes the job of mandated reporters. As a mandated reporter, it is their role to protect children from abuse and neglect.

The bill S.982-Speak Up to Protect Every Abused Kid Act was introduced to Congress. It would require organizations to provide educational training for their mandated reporters, educational campaigns for the public and provide resources that are available to help prevent abuse and neglect.

This issue connects to the NASW Code of Ethics Values. Some of the values that would be covered by this bill are service and importance of human relationships. This bill connects to the value of service because this bill is essentially creating a service for mandated reporters. The bill is tackling the social problem of child abuse and creating a solution by providing better education to mandated reporters. It connects to importance of human relationships because the bill is also helping struggling families with resources that they are in need of. This is not going to help the relationship between not only a social worker and the client, but the relationship within the families because the stress of needing resources and not being able to receive them will lessen. This will in turn help the dynamic in the family is become less stressful and happier.

Sign this petition to support the need for more educational training and write you senators in support of this bill and help save a child from abuse or neglect.