The Board of Education recognizes that because of their sustained contact with school-aged children, employees are in an excellent position to identify abused or maltreated children and refer them for treatment and protection.
The purpose of mandatory reporting is to identify suspected abused and maltreated children as soon as possible, so that such children determined to be abused or maltreated can be protected from further harm and, where appropriate, can be offered services to assist him or her and his or her family.
Pursuant to applicable law, any school official or employee who has reasonable cause to know or suspect that a child has been subjected to abuse or maltreatment will immediately report this to the Building Principal who will report the case to the New York State Child Abuse and Maltreatment Register, as required by law.
The report shall be made by telephone or by telephone facsimile machine on a form supplied by the Commissioner of Social Services. A written report shall be made within forty-eight hours to the appropriate local child protective service, and to the statewide Central Register for Child Abuse and Maltreatment.
School employees and officials will not contact the child’s family or any other person to determine the cause of the suspected abuse or maltreatment. It is not the responsibility of the school official or employee to prove that the child has been abused or maltreated.
Any school official or employee who has cause to suspect that the death of any child is a result of child abuse or maltreatment must report that fact to the appropriate medical examiner or coroner.
In accordance with the law, any employee who fails to report an instance of suspected child abuse or maltreatment may be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor and may be held liable for the damages caused by the failure to report. The law grants employees and other persons who report instances of child abuse immunity in good faith from any liability that might otherwise be incurred.
The district will cooperate to the extent possible with authorized child protective services workers in investigations of alleged child abuse.
The school district shall maintain an ongoing training program which will address the identification and reporting of child abuse and maltreatment. Attendance at sessions of this training program shall be required of all district employees who come in contact with students. Attendance records shall be kept, and notations will be made in personnel files as to the dates of attendance.
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The Superintendent shall develop, with input from appropriate personnel, a plan for implementation of such a training program, to be approved by the Board. In addition, the policy and regulations will be included in all employee handbooks and distributed annually to all personnel who are not covered under existing handbooks. The Superintendent will prepare and implement all regulations as are necessary to accomplish the intent of this policy.
A copy of this policy, along with the administrative regulations explaining the reporting requirements, shall be distributed to all members of the professional staff.
Cross-ref: 5314, Corporal Punishment Complaints
5430, Student Psychological Services
5500, Student Records
9135, Suspected Child Abuse by District Personnel
Ref: Child Protective Services Act of 1973
Social Services Law §§411 et seq.
Family Court Act §1012
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, 20 U.S.C. §1232g, 45 CFR §99.36
Education Law §3209-a
Note: Policy added
[The Education Law requires all Boards of Education to adopt a written policy regarding suspected child abuse and maltreatment.]
Policy Adopted: January 29, 1997 Wayne Central School District
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