Child Abuse Mandatory Reporting
Ifeyinwa Egwuatu
HMGT 372 6381
September 28, 2020
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CHILD ABUSE MANDATORY REPORTING
Child Abuse Mandatory Reporting – Purpose of Paper, Federal/State Laws
Healthcare workers provide quality care to everyone, ranging from elders to infants,
special needs to disabled, and from most healthy to chronically ill patients. A factor that impacts
care is child abuse. According to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), child
abuse and neglect is defined as “any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or
caregiver that results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation,
or an act or failure to act that presents an imminent risk of serious harm (U.S. Department of
Health & Human Services, 2015). As parents, legal guardians, and healthcare providers, there is
an immense amount of responsibility to report child abuse.
The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness the responsibilities of reporting child
abuse to a nurse supervisor. I chose this topic because I have worked closely with children in
different job settings such as working at Chuck E. Cheese’s where the population is primarily
children and at a pediatrics facility, shadowing a pediatrician. Mandatory reporting laws differ
for each state when it comes to child abuse – which includes physical abuse, sexual abuse, and
emotional abuse (FindLaw, 2019). The Maryland Family Law Code S 5-704 states that health
practioners, educators, workers acting in a professional capacity in this State shall immediately
notify and give all information required to the head of the institution. The federal law is 42
U.S.C.A. S 5106g which sets the minimum standards for defining child abuse and neglect for
those states that accept federal funding. Additionally, health care professionals are mandated to
report to Child Protective Services (CPS) (Maryland Department of Health, n.d.).
Employee and Health Services Setting
The health care setting I chose was the nurse’s office in a school building. A school
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CHILD ABUSE MANDATORY REPORTING
building is a general setting where there are children everywhere, with the exception of staff and
faculty. School personnel are often the first to become aware that a child may be a victim of
maltreatment and is struggling because of adverse events occurring in his or her life (National
Association of School Nurses, 2014).
The name of the employee I picked is Gladys Ebele Egwuatu. Egwuatu has over 20 years
of experience from starting as a Registered Nurse at NIH and Walter Reed, then transitioning as a
school at Doswell Brooks Elementary School. After obtaining her Master’s degree in Nursing,
she was promoted to nurse manager of PGCPS, overseeing 32 schools, along with another job
working as a hospital nurse supervisor at the United Medical Center.
Discussion of Three Critical Aspects of Employee’s responsibilities
As noted previously, there is an immense amount of responsibilities that health care
providers must uphold. Egwuatu says that “Interviewing the child is extremely important; even if
the child is a minor with their parent present, I would still ask the parent to step outside the room,
so I may begin to interview the patient, while also paying attention to body language, breathing,
everything” She continues to say that “a thorough body surface exam will need to be conducted,
meaning the child removes their clothes and we reports every wound, cigarette butt burn, cuts,
scars that leads to suspicion of child abuse”. The USA’s National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development allow law enforcements and health practioners to get quality information
from a child victim/witness (Public Health Foundation of Georgia, n.d.). According to MD Fam
L Code S 5-704, a written report of the child that has been subject to abuse followed by an
interview and examination must be conducted. While there is no state or federal law against
forgetting to conduct an interview, Egwuatu mentions that
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CHILD ABUSE MANDATORY REPORTING
“you want to be on top of situations like that because if the child goes to get examined
elsewhere for whatever reason and there are signs of abuse on his or her body without
corresponding reports and interviews in their files, the last care unit the child was seen
will be flagged.”
In 2012, a Wisconsin elementary school did not interview and allegedly ignored a teacher
abusing and terrorizing disabled children (Buchmeier, 2012). When the allegations against
teacher Mary Berglund came to light, Janet Berry Elementary School principal Richard Waters,
whose office sat across the hall from Berglund’s classroom, did not report Berglund to the state
or conduct an interview with the victims, according to the complaint. Berglund’s abuse allegedly
went on for years since the children could not share their experiences and because school staff
members either ignored or were ignorant of the allegations. three other educational assistants, a
custodian and a speech pathologist, could have reported Berglund over the years, but they instead
stood idly by. Berglund, 54, pleaded guilty in December 2011 to five counts of battery and one
count of child abuse (Buchmeier, 2012).
Egwuatu pointed out another critical responsibility and that is to “make sure all reports
are true and 100 percent accurate, because submitting a false report is illegal by law”. The state
of Maryland has not addressed the issue of falsifying reports in the statutes, however, in most
states, the alleged person will be referred to the office of the Chief State’s Attorney, shall be fined
of not more than $2,000 or imprisoned for not more than a year, or both (Child Welfare, n.d.). In
May of 2019, a Lakeland police officer, William Long, had been accused of making a false
report of child abuse with the Department of Children and Families (DCF), saying his son had
scratches on his back and a puncture wound in his hand (Leone, 2019). A DCF investigator went
to the babysitter’s house for questioning and determined there was no evidence of child abuse.
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CHILD ABUSE MANDATORY REPORTING
The investigator called and meet with Long who allegedly changed his story, saying he had no
concerns of child ware while his son was under his babysitter’s watch. Long is now on paid
administrative leave and faces a third-degree felony charge of making a false report of child
abuse (Leone, 2019).
A person doesn’t need to be in a warzone in order to feel trauma. Being a victim of child
abuse and neglect can trigger trauma, but health care workers can do their part to assist and aid
victims. Providing support after the report is another important, critical responsibility. “Children
are very fragile”, says Egwuatu.
“Going through any kind of abuse or negligence is very traumatic. Building trust will be
difficult, they won’t be completely comfortable with people, and most develop
psychiatric disorders or having to rely on medication because they replay what they’ve
been through and get anxious or can’t sleep, or display outbursts of anger and rage”
Children need support from their family members, friends, teachers, etc. in order to prevent long
term issues from occurring. Damaging consequences of abuse can not only reshape a child’s
brain but also last a lifetime (Schulte, 2013). It takes time to heal, but providers and professionals
must be willing to be emotionally present to aid children in efforts to avoid any psychological
disorders that come with this level of trauma.
While there isn’t a new story of the consequences of not supporting child abuse victims, there are
health care professionals and teams of at hospitals, clinic and other care facilities where their
jobs are primarily to help victims so they don’t have long term effects of negligence and child
abuse. Penn State Children’s Hospital has teams dedicated to child physical abuse and child
sexual abuse (Woodall, 2020). This is one of several hospitals and facilities. Children should feel
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CHILD ABUSE MANDATORY REPORTING
safe and comfortable knowing that there are professionals specialized in helping them in their
traumatic state.
Conclusion
Child abuse has a long-lasting effect on victims, their family, and others surrounding.
Health care workers need to be very mindful when working with children and that being vigilant
is key. It is important to follow critical responsibilities of child abuse mandatory reporting such
as interviewing children that suspected to be a victim of child abuse, report it to the Child
Protection Services immediately, and be a support to the victim. Failing to maintaining the
responsibilities will have a negative impact on the quality of health care. Consequences of not
following these responsibilities will result in several children suffering through abuse, whether
it’s sexual, drug, physical, or neglect. Every suspicious report that is made is indirectly saving a
life. For more information about this issue, visit the U.S. Department of Health & Human
Services website at hhs.gov, section Programs for Families and Children.
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References
Buchmeier, L. (2012, February 9). School Allegedly Ignored Special-Ed Abuse. Court House
News Service. https://www.courthousenews.com/school-allegedly-ignored-special-edabuse/
Child Welfare. (n.d.). Penalties for Failure to Report and False Reporting of Child Abuse and
Neglect. Retrieved September 25, 2020, from
https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/report.pdf#page=3&view=Penalties%20for
%20false%20reporting
FindLaw. (2019, February 4). Mandatory Reporting Laws: Child Abuse and Neglect.
Criminal.Findlaw. https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/mandatory-reportinglaws-child-abuse-and-neglect.html
Leone, A. (2019, September 21). Lakeland Police Officer Charged With Making False Report of
Child Abuse. Bay News 9.
https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/crime/2019/09/21/lakeland-police-officer-chargedwith-making-false-report-of-child-abuse
Maryland Department of Health. (n.d.). Reporting Requirements. Retrieved September 25, 2020,
from https://phpa.health.maryland.gov/mch/Pages/IPV_Reporting.aspx
National Association of School Nurses. (2014, January 1). Care of Victims of Child
Maltreatment: The School Nurse’s Role. Nasn.Org.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED558441.pdf
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CHILD ABUSE MANDATORY REPORTING
Public Health Foundation of Georgia. (n.d.). Interviewing a child witness or victim: how to get
an accurate testimony without further traumatising the child. Retrieved September 25,
2020, from http://phf.org.ge/en/resources/interviewing-a-child-victim-or-witness/
Schulte, B. (2013, September 12). Effects of child abuse and neglect, if untreated, can last a
lifetime, study finds. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/gdpr-consent/?
next_url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.washingtonpost.com%2flocal%2fnew-report-finds-thatuntreated-the-effects-of-child-abuse-and-neglect-can-last-a-lifetime
%2f2013%2f09%2f12%2f1edc0bdc-1bc7-11e3-82ef-a059e54c49d0_story.html
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (2015, August 21). What is child abuse or
neglect? What is the definition of child abuse. HHS.Gov.
https://www.hhs.gov/answers/programs-for-families-and-children/what-is-childabuse/index.html
Woodall, C. (2020, May 13). As hospitals see more severe child abuse injuries during
coronavirus, “the worst is yet to come.” USAToday.
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/13/hospitals-seeing-more-severechild-abuse-injuries-during-coronavirus/3116395001/
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