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Mandatory Reporting of Child Maltreatment

Decent Essays

January 20, 2013
Mandatory Reporting of Child Maltreatment
From this assignment I became aware that all states in the United States have statutes identifying anyone who must report child maltreatment under certain circumstances. I have been a resident of Pennsylvania for 20 years. This assignment really opened my eyes to a subject I have no put much attention towards until now. To compare Pennsylvania’s laws with other states, I chose states close to the area. I chose to also look at New Jersey, Delaware, New York and Maryland as well. In Pennsylvania, professionals who are required to report maltreatment are just about anyone working in a medical related field, such as physicians, nurses, medical examiners, interns, podiatrists, …show more content…

Any person who has valid reasoning that a child is being abused or neglected, are required to report this abuse as well. Just like in PA, in New York the standards for making a report remain the same. However, the person making the report must give their name.
For my fourth state, I looked at Delaware. In Delaware, professionals who are required to make a report are physicians, interns, residents, nurses, medical examiners, anyone in the healing arts, school employees, socials workers, psychologists, hospital and health-care institutions, the Medical School of Delaware, and also law enforcement agencies. Any person who is aware of abuse, or in good faith believe abuse or neglect is going on, are required to report the abuse. Also, although the reports can be made anonymously, the Division of Family Service can request the name as well as the address of anyone making the report.
The fifth and final state I looked at for this assignment was Maryland. In this state, professionals required to report abuse are just health practitioners, educators or human service workers, and police officers. Also any person who has reason to believe that a child is being abused or treated unfairly is asked to report it as well. Anyone can notify the local department or law enforcement agency if they have reason to believe a parent, guardian or caregiver,

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