In the process of doing her monthly visit, a social work case manager notices another child in the foster home. The child is moaning softly and seems listless and groggy. There are no noticeable bruises, no bleeding, no obvious broken bones. The child is not a client of the case manager, nor even of the worker’s agency. When the case manager gets back to her office she casually mentions her concern regarding the child to her supervisor. Both are mandated reporters but neither calls the state child abuse hotline. A week later they find out that, tragically, the child died a few days after the case manager had made her visit. The cause of death was non-accidental blunt force trauma.
Months later a lawsuit is initiated by the estate of the deceased child. Among the named defendants are the social work case manager and her supervisor. The plaintiffs claim that, as mandated reporters, both were negligent in not contacting the state hotline. Had they done so the child would not have died.
In its publication, Mandatory Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect (2016), the Child Welfare Information Gateway reports: “The circumstances under which a mandatory reporter must make a … Read More... “For Mandated Child Abuse Reporters, Is “Concern” the Same as “Suspicion”?”