Preventing Child Abuse Network - Child Abuse and Maltreatment/Neglect: Identification and Reporting

Chapter 544 of the amended Laws of 1988 for New York State states that certain individuals must provide documentation showing that they have completed two hours of coursework or training regarding the identification and reporting of child abuse and maltreatment/neglect. Those individuals are noted as being physicians, chiropractors, dentists, registered nurses, podiatrists, optometrists, psychologists, and dental hygienists. When applying on or after January 1, 1991, initially, or for the renewal of, a license, registration, or limited permit, affected individuals, as noted, must provide this documentation.

As for more specificity as to who must report child abuse and maltreatment/neglect:

Mandated reporters of child abuse are identified in New York State Social Service Law, Section 413 as:

Chapter 544 of the Laws of 1988 also includes this training among the requirements for certification or licensure of classroom teachers, school service personnel, and administrators and supervisors. All persons applying on or after January 1, 1991, for a provisional or permanent certificate or license valid for administrative or supervisory service, classroom teaching service, or school service must have completed the two hours of coursework or training. The only individuals exempt from the required study are those who possess- with an effective date no later than September 1, 1990, - a permanent New York State certificate or full credentialing from the cities of Buffalo or New York, and who do not subsequently apply for any additional classroom teaching service, administrative-supervisory service, or school service credentials.

Failure to report child abuse or maltreatment/neglect on the part of mandated reporters is addressed in New York State Social Service Law, Section 420:

Any person, official or institution required by law to report a case of suspected child abuse or maltreatment/neglect who willfully fails to do so shall be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor;

Any person, official or institution required by this title to report a case of suspected child abuse or maltreatment/neglect who knowingly and willfully fails to do so shall be civilly liable for the damages proximately caused by such failure.

Mandated reporters are provided immunity from liability under New York State Social Service Law, Section 419:

Any person, official or institution participating in good faith in making of a report, the taking of photographs, or the removal or keeping of a child they suspect may be abused or maltreated/neglected, shall have immunity from any liability, civil or criminal, that might result from such actions. For the purpose of any proceeding, civil or criminal, the good faith of any such person, official or institution required to report cases of child abuse or maltreatment/neglect shall be presumed, provided such person, official or institution was acting in the discharge of their duties and within the scope of their employment, and that such liability did not result from the willful misconduct or gross negligence of such person, official or institution.

Confidentiality rests with the Commissioner of Social Services and the local department of social services. They are not permitted to release to the subject of a report data, which can identify the person who made the report unless such a person has given written permission for the central register to do so.

This course is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete overview of the serious and complex issues of child abuse and maltreatment/neglect. This course, however, includes the legally required aspects of these important topics that can be presented in the minimum period of time specified by law.

In New York State, in 2002 there were approximately 150,000 reports of child abuse or neglect; of those reports almost 70,000 children were determined to be have been abused or neglected. 68 children died in New York State in 2002 as a result of abuse or neglect.

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) is the Federal legislation that provides minimum standards for the definition of child abuse and neglect that States must incorporate in their statutory definitions.

Under CAPTA, child abuse and neglect means, at a minimum:

Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.

The term sexual abuse includes:

The employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement, or coercion of any child to engage in, or assist any other person to engage in, any sexually explicit conduct or simulation of such conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct; or the rape, and in cases of caretaker or interfamilial relationships, statutory rape, molestation, prostitution or other form of sexual exploitation of children, or incest with children.

Social Services Law of New York State define the following:

A child is an unemancipated person who is under eighteen years of age.

In New York State a child is also defined as a child residing in a group residential care facility under the jurisdiction of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), Division for Youth (DFY), Office of Mental Health (OMH), Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD), or the State Education Department (SED).

A child with a handicapping condition who is 18 years or older (up to age 21) who is defined as an abused child in residential care and who is in residential care in one of the following facilities:

New York State School for the Blind (Batavia, NY);
New York State School for the Deaf (Rome, NY);
A private residential school which has been designed for special education;
A special act school district; or
A state supported school for the deaf or blind, which has a residential component.

Abuse constitutes the most serious harm committed against children. In New York State, the Family Court Act, Section 1012. (e) defines an abused child as one whose parent or other person legally responsible for her/his care:

Inflicts or allows to be inflicted upon the child, physical injury by other than accidental means;
Creates or allows to be created a substantial risk of physical injury to such a child by other than accidental means which would be likely to cause death, serious or protracted disfigurement or protracted impairment of physical or emotional health or protracted loss of impairment of the function of any bodily organ;
Commits or allows to be committed a sex offense against a child;
Allows, permits, or encourages a child to engage in any act described in sections 230.25, 230.30, and 230.32 of the penal law (such as obscene sexual performance, sexual conduct, prostitution);
Commits any of the acts described in section 253.25 of the penal law such as incest
Allows such child to engage in acts or conduct described in article 263 of the penal law (such as obscene sexual performance, sexual conduct)

In New York State, the term maltreatment is used in Social Services Law and in Family Court Act the term used is neglect.

Maltreatment/Neglect includes a child's physical, mental or emotional impairment, or imminent danger of impairment by the parent's or legal guardian's failure to exercise a minimum degree of care:

In supplying the child with food, clothing, shelter or education, or medical, dental optometrical or surgical care, though financially able to do so or offered financial or other reasonable means to do so; or
In providing the child with proper supervision or guardianship, by unreasonably inflicting or allowing to be inflicted harm, or a substantial risk thereof, including the use of excessive corporal punishment; or
By misusing drugs or alcohol to the extent that he or she loses self-control of his/her actions, or
By any other acts of similarly serious nature requiring the aid of the court; or
By abandoning the child.

Additionally, a maltreated/neglected child is one who:

Is less than 18 years of age and is defined as a neglected child by the Family Court Act.
Has had serious physical injury inflection upon her/him by other than accidental means.
Is 18 years of age or older, is neglected and resides in one of the special residential care institutions listed above under the definition of the child.

The circumstances which constitute impairment of mental or emotional condition, more commonly referred to as emotional neglect, are also defined as follows:

"Impairment of emotional health" and "impairment of mental or emotional condition" includes a state of substantially diminished psychological or intellectual functioning in relation to, but not limited to, such factors as failure to thrive, control of aggression or self-destructive impulses, ability to think and reason, or acting out and misbehavior, including incorrigibility, ungovernability or habitual truancy; provided, however, that such impairment must be clearly attributable to the unwillingness or inability of the respondent (such as parent or other person legally responsible for the child) to exercise a minimum degree of care toward the child.

In Section 412.9 of the Social Service Law, there is a separate definition of a "neglected child in residential care". Such a definition pertains to children residing in group residential facilities under the jurisdiction of the State Department of Social Services, Division for Youth, Office of Mental Health, Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, or State Education Department. Section 412.6 defines a custodian as a director, operator, employee or volunteer of a residential care facility or program.

A neglected child in residential care means a child, whose custodian impairs, or places in imminent danger of becoming impaired, the child's physical, mental or emotional condition;

By intentionally administering to the child any prescription drug other than in accordance with a physician's or physician's assistant's prescription;
In accordance with the regulations of the state agency operating, certifying, or supervising such facility or program, which shall be consistent with the child's age, condition, service, and treatment needs, by:
- Failing to adhere to standards for the provision of food, clothing, shelter, education, medical, dental, optometrical or surgical care, or for the use of isolation or restraint or
- Failing to adhere to standards for the supervision of children by inflicting or allowing to be inflicted physical harm, or a substantial risk thereof; or
By failing to conform to applicable state regulations for appropriate custodial conduct.

Maltreatment/Neglect may be difficult to identify correctly. What appears as maltreatment/neglect may be the result of poor parental or caretaker judgment. It may be the result of poverty rather than neglect.

Maltreatment/neglect can range from a caregiver's momentary inattention to willful deprivation. Single incidents can have no harmful effects or, in some cases, they can result in death. Chronic patterns of maltreatment/neglect may result in severe developmental delays or severe emotional disabilities.

Possible indicators for maltreatment/neglect in a child's behavior could include one or more of these items:

Begging or stealing food or money;
Extended stays in school (early arrival and late departure);
Frequent tardiness to school; Infrequent school attendance;
Constant fatigue, falling asleep in class;
Alcohol and drug abuse;
States there is no caretaker.

Possible indicators for maltreatment/neglect in a parent's behavior could include one or more of these items:

Misuses alcohol or other drugs;
Has disorganized, chaotic or upsetting home life;
Is apathetic, feels nothing will change;
Is isolated from friends, relatives and neighbors;
Has long-term chronic illness;
Cannot be found;
Has history of neglect as a child;
Exposes child to unsafe living conditions;
Evidences limited intellectual capacity.