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170 W San Jose Ave • Claremont CA 91711Contacts
Child Abuse and Mandated Reporting Training
Child abuse training is provided for all employees having direct student contact. Child abuse falls into four categories:
Physical Abuse: Any act resulting in non-accidental injury, including burning, biting, cutting, striking or twisting limbs.
Physical Neglect: Withholding basic necessities of life, including adequate food, clothing, shelter, or medical care.
Emotional Abuse: Includes verbal assault (i.e., belittling, screaming, threats, blaming, sarcasm), continual negative moods and constant family discord.
Sexual Abuse: Rape, rape in concert, incest, sodomy, oral copulation, penetration of genital/anal opening by a foreign object and child molestation.
Annually all teachers, assistants, and other employees who work with students are provided with updates about reporting suspicion of child abuse to outside agencies. The update includes review of the four child abuse categories and a review of the following three elements:
- When must a report be filed?
When within scope of an employeeís professional capacity/or employment, they know/or reasonably suspect a child is/or was a victim of abuse. "Reasonable suspicion" means it is objectively reasonable to entertain such a suspicion, based upon the facts that could cause a reasonable person, in a similar position, to suspect abuse. If you have to think the matter over, this is enough to have suspicion and to report it. If in doubt, err on the side of reporting your suspicions as outlined in "B".
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Employees are expected to follow these steps immediately:
- Contact the site administrator;
- Contact child abuse hotline, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at the following number: 1.800.540.4000;
- Contact your local law enforcement agency (i.e. police or sheriff);
- Tell child protective services/law enforcement that the other has been contacted;
- Make a record of the calls;
- Complete suspected child abuse report and mail within 36 hours.
- It is not sufficient to report the incident to a site administrator. The employee has an independent responsibility to insure that the matter is reported to law enforcement and child protective services.
Scenario
An anonymous phone call is received by the school office that a neighbor overheard a commotion and screams from a house nearby the previous night. The caller claims that a student at the school lives in the house and could be the victim of physical abuse. Office staff informs the caller of the callerís obligation to contact Child Protective Services or the Police Department and report the incident. In addition, the staff person asks for the studentís name. The office staff person informs the counselor, teacher, or principal who investigates by interviewing the student and other individuals who are alleged to have information. After the interview, the Mandated Reporter (the office staff person along with the counselor, teacher, principal, or any other employee who has knowledge of the incident) determines if a reasonable suspicion exists. If it does, then the reporting procedures are followed as outlined in "B".