Intro
Reporting Requirements
Types
Talking to
a Child
Making the
Report
Conclusion
Reporting requirements vary slightly for a few groups...
Select the affiliation that best fits you:
Mandated Reporters
by State Statute
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UW System
Do you work within the
UW System? *
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* As a UW System employee, you may have a role that falls into s. 48.981. If so, you must follow the "Mandated Reporters by State Statute."
Clergy
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Neglect
Define
Recognize
Practice
Listen to audio
Neglect is defined as the failure, refusal, or inability on the part of a caregiver, for reasons other than poverty, to provide necessary care so as to seriously endanger the physical health of the child.
Let’s look carefully at the different parts of this definition. Click on the questions below.
You can download a printable copy of the questions about neglect. (PDF)
Neglect is failure on the part of a caregiver, in other words: a parent, legal custodian, guardian, or a person providing temporary care or supervision, such as a day care provider, teacher or coach.
Briefly, neglect is a failure to provide basic care and protection. Necessary care includes such things as the following:
- Adequate food
- Clothing adequate for the weather
- Necessary medical and dental care
- Adequate shelter
- Level of supervision consistent with the child’s needs
- Protecting the child from dangers that a caregiver can reasonably be expected to foresee and prevent
This means that for an identified lack of care to be considered neglect, it must have the potential to significantly negatively impact the child's physical health.
Failure to get treatment for a child's broken arm endangers that child's physical health.
Failure to assure a child has adequate school supplies or teaching a child how to shoplift does not endanger the child’s physical health, and therefore is not neglect.
No. No actual harm needs to have been experienced by the child for the conditions to be neglect.
The word “endanger” is predictive. Would a reasonable person conclude that leaving a 3-year old child unsupervised on a playground puts that child in serious physical danger? Yes. Therefore, it may be neglect, even though the child might not yet have been physically harmed.
Having limited resources is not neglect. Parents may find themselves in a situation where they must set priorities regarding paying for medical care, food, clothing and sometimes even shelter.
Poverty, in this definition, is about insufficient income coming into the household, regardless of a parent’s attempts to improve those circumstances. If parents do what they can to provide for their children with their limited resources, it is not neglect.
Conversely, neglect may include parents who have sufficient income and resources but choose to spend the money on other things (e.g., alcohol, drugs, gambling, vacations, etc.)
Here are five examples:
- Poor school attendance
- Failure to schedule well-baby checks or other routine doctor appointments or to obtain immunizations
- Lack of routine in the home
- A messy home that is not hazardous
- Tardiness in picking a child up from day care or soccer practice
Neglect Scenarios
1) You work at a College for Kids program for school-aged children during the summer. During the first ten days of the program, you notice that one student — 10-year-old Luke — has “forgotten” to bring his lunch six times the first two weeks. His clothes often look too small for him even though he is much smaller than his peers. He usually puts his head down on the desk or table and doesn’t interact with others. You create an opportunity to talk with him in private, and you learn that he is really tired because he is taking care of his five-year-old brother and four-year-old sister and that he skips lunch because otherwise there wouldn’t be enough food for his siblings. He can’t count on his mom because she sleeps “all the time,” so it is up to him to take care of things. He’s worried because they are almost out of food.
Are you required to report?
Correct: You are required to report.
At a minimum, two basic needs are not being met — adequate food and adequate supervision — even though the mother appears to be at home. Luke is trying to carry out his parents’ responsibilities. There could be a number of legitimate reasons why his Mom sleeps “all the time,” such as illness or depression, but the bottom line is the children’s basic needs are not being met. Furthermore, the status of the younger children is unknown, and there could be other serious, even emergent, unmet needs.
Incorrect: You are required to report.
At a minimum, two basic needs are not being met — adequate food and adequate supervision — even though the mother appears to be at home. Luke is trying to carry out his parents’ responsibilities. There could be a number of legitimate reasons why his Mom sleeps “all the time,” such as illness or depression, but the bottom line is the children’s basic needs are not being met. Furthermore, the status of the younger children is unknown, and there could be other serious, even emergent, unmet needs.
2) You are a faculty member and an adult student approaches you after class about an assignment. The student seems overwhelmed and confides that she is stressed due to some “questionable things” going on with the person who cares for her two-year-old (Stacey) while she is at class. When you ask her, she tells you the following:
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Her daughter is coming home with bumps, scrapes and bruises on a regular basis; and when she talked to Karen, the caregiver, she was told that Stacey was just always getting into things and was “accident-prone.” But Stacy doesn’t get hurt when the student or her husband cares for her.
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Stacy had a bad abrasion by her eye one day when her dad picked her up from day care, and Karen said “Oh, that was probably my dog.”
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Karen cares for two other kids, both older than Stacey. Karen has begun blaming some of the bruises and scrapes on these other kids, including a bruise Stacey had on her stomach from two days ago.
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Stacey has started crying and clinging when her mother (your student) drops her off for daycare; this morning she had a real meltdown.
Are you required to report?
Correct: You are required to report.
It’s not clear where the injuries are coming from —other kids, unsupervised play, the dog, or the caregiver — but if a two-year-old is receiving adequate supervision and care, injuries of this number should not be occurring. It is the frequency of the injuries that is concerning, as well as the location of the injuries (face and stomach), the child’s age, and the caregiver’s inadequate explanations for the injuries. You do not need to be able to tell CPS or law enforcement that you specifically suspect physical abuse or neglect or threatened maltreatment. The type of maltreatment doesn’t matter. All of the information together is reasonable cause to suspect that some form of maltreatment is occurring. And even though you haven’t seen the child yourself, you heard about these concerns while on the job. [Also, observations and oral discussions with students, when not reduced to writing, do not qualify as education records and, therefore, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act does not apply.]
Incorrect: You are required to report.
It’s not clear where the injuries are coming from — other kids, unsupervised play, the dog, or the caregiver — but if a two-year-old is receiving adequate supervision and care, injuries of this number should not be occurring. It is the frequency of the injuries that is concerning, as well as the location of the injuries (face and stomach), the child’s age, and the caregiver’s inadequate explanations for the injuries. You do not need to be able to tell CPS or law enforcement that you specifically suspect physical abuse or neglect or threatened maltreatment. The type of maltreatment doesn’t matter. All of the information together is reasonable cause to suspect that some form of maltreatment is occurring. And even though you haven’t seen the child yourself, you heard about these concerns while on the job. [Also, observations and oral discussions with students, when not reduced to writing, do not qualify as education records and, therefore, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act does not apply.]
3) You work for University housing on campus. On a couple of occasions you’ve seen a four-year-old child from unit 3-E playing alone in the yard. Today you saw him crossing the street alone to play at the playground. The street has significant traffic and the child crossed between parked cars, making him difficult for drivers to see. He played alone, totally unsupervised, attempting to climb equipment intended for older children. At one point he fell and began to cry. You saw no indication that a parent or any other caregiver even knew where he was.
Are you required to report?
Correct: You are required to report.
A four-year-old child is unable to care for himself, so, at a minimum, his basic need for adequate supervision is not being met. We don’t know whether there is a caregiver in the home, but we don’t need to know that. Even if there is a caregiver in the home while the child is outside, that caregiver is not providing adequate supervision, and that lack of care seriously endangers the child’s physical health.
Incorrect: You are required to report.
A four-year-old child is unable to care for himself, so, at a minimum, his basic need for adequate supervision is not being met. We don’t know whether there is a caregiver in the home, but we don’t need to know that. Even if there is a caregiver in the home while the child is outside, that caregiver is not providing adequate supervision, and that lack of care seriously endangers the child’s physical health.
1) You are an ER nurse. A mother brings two-year-old Laura to the ER with a scald burn along the head, face, and shoulders. The mother explains to you that Laura pulled a boiling pot of spaghetti from the stove onto herself. That explanation seems to fit the burns. When you ask more details about the incident in order to provide the best medical care for Laura, the mother says she really doesn’t know because she was outside mowing the lawn. She said it was a terrible accident, but Laura had been told never to touch anything on the stove and knew better.
Are you required to report?
Correct: You are required to report.
The burn itself was accidental (and therefore is unlikely to be considered physical abuse), but it happened because the mother was not providing the level of supervision required for a two- year-old child. Therefore, there is reasonable cause to suspect that the burns were the result of neglect. The lack of necessary care (supervision) seriously endangered the physical health of the child and continues to endanger the child, as the mother has indicated that she expects the child to know how to keep herself safe.
Incorrect: You are required to report.
The burn itself was accidental (and therefore is unlikely to be considered physical abuse), but it happened because the mother was not providing the level of supervision required for a two- year-old child. Therefore, there is reasonable cause to suspect that the burns were the result of neglect. The lack of necessary care (supervision) seriously endangered the physical health of the child and continues to endanger the child, as the mother has indicated that she expects the child to know how to keep herself safe.
2) Six-year-old Rebecca comes to the child care center where you are a provider and announces to you one day that she is old enough now to stay home alone. By way of proof, she says that she was at home alone the previous night because her mom “went clubbing” with her boyfriend. She was pretty scared, but her mom told her to watch TV and then just go to bed, that she was a big girl now, not a baby. Her mom wasn’t home when she fell asleep but was home when she woke up that morning.
Are you required to report?
Correct: You are required to report.
There is a lack of necessary care — in this case, supervision. A six-year-old child does not have the cognitive or emotional maturity to care for herself in that situation.
Incorrect: You are required to report.
There is a lack of necessary care — in this case, supervision. A six-year-old child does not have the cognitive or emotional maturity to care for herself in that situation.
3) Nine-year-old Luke on your soccer team is distracted and seems to have no energy. When you ask him how he is, he wants to know if you can tell him how someone can find their father. When you talk to Luke some more, you find out his mother sleeps “all the time,” that he’s been trying to make meals for his five-year-old brother and four-year-old sister, but there’s hardly any food left in the house and the money he had found to buy food is all gone now. He doesn’t want to get his mom in trouble, but he doesn’t know what to do any more. He thought maybe his father would take care of things.
Are you required to report?
Correct: You are required to report.
At a minimum, two basic needs are not being met: adequate food and adequate supervision. Even though the mother appears to be at home, Luke is trying to carry out his parents’ responsibilities. There could be a number of legitimate reasons why the Mom sleeps "all the time,"" such as illness or depression, but the bottom line is the children’s basic needs are not being met. Although Luke appears to be physically OK, the status of the younger children is unknown, and there could be additional serious, even emergent, unmet needs.
Incorrect: You are required to report.
At a minimum, two basic needs are not being met: adequate food and adequate supervision. Even though the mother appears to be at home, Luke is trying to carry out his parents’ responsibilities. There could be a number of legitimate reasons why the Mom sleeps "all the time,"" such as illness or depression, but the bottom line is the children’s basic needs are not being met. Although Luke appears to be physically OK, the status of the younger children is unknown, and there could be additional serious, even emergent, unmet needs.
4) Three-year-old Santos comes to your child care center. He has limited speech and play skills as compared to the other children his age. When you observe him with his mother, she is affectionate with him but doesn’t spend much time directly interacting with him. You are sure he would do better if he received some stimulation at home. You encourage her to set aside time to read him books and play games with him, but you get the impression that she is not going to do that. He appears adequately fed and clothed and has no health problems beyond the normal childhood colds.
Are you required to report?
Correct: You are not required to report.
Your assessment that Santos would benefit from his mother teaching, playing and interacting with him could very well be correct, but the absence of that stimulation does not seriously endanger his physical health. His basic needs for care and protection appear to be met, so there appears to be no neglect as defined in the law.
Incorrect: You are not required to report.
Your assessment that Santos would benefit from his mother teaching, playing and interacting with him could very well be correct, but the absence of that stimulation does not seriously endanger his physical health. His basic needs for care and protection appear to be met, so there appears to be no neglect as defined in the law.
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