Mandated training of professionals: a means for improving reporting of suspected child abuse

Professionals who are legally required to report suspicions of child abuse and neglect to a child abuse hotline often do not do so. In 1988 the New York State Legislature passed a law requiring professionals to take a 2-hour course called Identification and Reporting Child Abuse and Maltreatment as a prerequisite for licensure. New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has provided this training for more than 2,500 physicians, psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, teachers, and other professionals. A question affecting training content and quality, as well as policy decisions by child welfare professionals, remains: whether failure to report is founded in professionals' ignorance of the law and procedures involved in reporting or in their inability to recognize indicators of child abuse and neglect. NYSPCC conducted a survey of 1,368 course participants to determine the extent to which information in the course was new to them. Results indicated that substantial numbers of professionals were not aware of indicators of abuse; nevertheless all professionals were more knowledgeable about abuse than they were about legal obligations and procedures for reporting. A surprising finding was that teachers were no more knowledgeable about indicators of abuse than were other professionals, though most abused children are of school age. These and other results strongly supported the need to train professionals about indicators of child abuse and about how to report them.