Intro
Reporting Requirements
Types
Talking to
a Child
Making the
Report
Conclusion
Reporting requirements vary slightly for a few groups...
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Mandated Reporters
by State Statute
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UW System
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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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Physical Abuse
Define
Recognize
Practice
Listen to audio
Physical abuse is defined as physical injury inflicted on a child by other than accidental means.
That’s the definition. Now we are going to look at it more closely to understand what it means. Click on the questions below.
You can download a printable copy of the questions shown below. (PDF)
You will note that this definition says nothing about who might be inflicting the injury. That is intentional. Physical abuse is not restricted to injury inflicted by parents or other caregivers.
Physical abuse can be committed by any person, even a person who has no responsibility for the child.
Yes. Physical abuse includes only non-accidental injuries. Injuries that are purely accidental are not abuse. Non-accidental injuries fall into one of the following categories:
- The suspected maltreater intended to cause injury to the child.
For example: A parent immerses a child’s hand in scalding water as punishment for stealing.
For example: A child’s relative spanks her so hard it causes severe bruising on the buttocks.
- The suspected maltreater knowingly, carelessly or recklessly engaged in behavior that was dangerous to the child and resulted in injuries, regardless of whether he or she intended to cause the injuries.
For example: A man batters his wife while their toddler clings to her leg; the toddler falls against a table and gets a head injury.
For example: A childcare provider shakes a crying baby, resulting in brain injury.
No. Even children with minor injuries, such as a small bruise, have access to protection under the law if those minor injuries may be an indication that the child is in danger. Remember that the child protection system also responds to threatened abuse or neglect. Check the definition and examples of threatened maltreatment for more information.
Here are three examples:
- Grabbing a toddler to prevent him or her from falling, resulting in an injury
- Corporal punishment when there are no injuries
- Slapping a child in anger, when there are no injuries
TIP: Don’t worry about whether the injury might be serious enough to meet the definition of physical abuse. That’s hard for a reporter to tell, and is something that CPS or law enforcement can determine.
Physical Abuse Scenarios
1) You are a staff person in the University multicultural affairs office. Your position includes recruiting high school students to enroll in college on your campus. As part of the recruitment process, you invite high school students to participate in your college readiness program. The college readiness program includes organized activities such as the ropes challenge leadership course. During the ropes course, you notice one of the children has multiple bruises of different shades of color on the back of his legs and scars on his forearm that resemble cigarette burns. When you ask him about the marks, he confides that his stepfather caused the injuries. He says he can handle it, and he doesn’t want you to do anything about it because it would only “make things worse.”
Are you required to report?
Correct: You are required to report.
The program participant is a child, and there is reasonable cause to suspect that he has been physically abused: multiple injuries, different stages of healing, injuries that appear to not be accidental in origin, and a boy who says that his stepfather caused the injuries. You cannot honor his request to do nothing; you need to report. However, it would be important to tell CPS or the law enforcement agency to which you report that the boy is worried about retaliation from his stepfather because of the report.
Incorrect: You are required to report.
The program participant is a child, and there is reasonable cause to suspect that he has been physically abused: multiple injuries, different stages of healing, injuries that appear to not be accidental in origin, and a boy who says that his stepfather caused the injuries. You cannot honor his request to do nothing; you need to report. However, it would be important to tell CPS or the law enforcement agency to which you report that the boy is worried about retaliation from his stepfather because of the report.
2) You work in the University admissions office and read a personal statement from a 17-year-old applicant discussing an “obstacle” he has overcome. The applicant states that he was diagnosed with ADHD as a child and that his father often “got physical” with him to the point that his mother would threaten to call the police if he didn’t stop. He stated the worst time was when his father punched him in the mouth and he needed stitches where his tooth went through his lip.
Are you required to report?
Correct: You are required to report.
The applicant is 17 years old — still a minor — and has described injuries that are serious and that were not accidental in their cause. Because EO#54 does not limit your reporting responsibilities to a timeframe within which injuries must have occurred, it does not matter that the applicant used the past tense. The applicant has also stated that the father’s violence against him occurred “often” and at a level where his mother threatened to call the police. All of this indicates a significant level of violence in the home. [Because the applicant has not yet enrolled at the University, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act does not prohibit disclosure.]
Incorrect: You are required to report.
The applicant is 17 years old — still a minor — and has described injuries that are serious and that were not accidental in their cause. Because EO#54 does not limit your reporting responsibilities to a timeframe within which injuries must have occurred, it does not matter that the applicant used the past tense. The applicant has also stated that the father’s violence against him occurred “often” and at a level where his mother threatened to call the police. All of this indicates a significant level of violence in the home. [Because the applicant has not yet enrolled at the University, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act does not prohibit disclosure.]
3) You are an astrophysics professor and you give a presentation about space travel to a scout troop that meets at a local church, at the request of your son who is a troop member. When leaving the troop meeting, you see one of the scouts get picked up by his father. As the scout gets into the car, you hear the father speaking angrily to the boy and then see him intentionally burn the child’s arm with a cigarette.
Are you required to report?
Correct: You are not required to report.
Were you surprised by this answer? The reason the answer is No is because you are not required to report under EO#54: this is not something you’ve seen or heard about while on the job. Could it be abuse? Absolutely: you have witnessed someone intentionally inflicting an injury on a child. Can you report even though you are not required to? Absolutely: the protections that are present in the law are there for voluntary reporters as well as mandated reporters.
Incorrect: You are not required to report.
Were you surprised by this answer? The reason the answer is No is because you are not required to report under EO#54: this is not something you’ve seen or heard about while on the job. Could it be abuse? Absolutely: you have witnessed someone intentionally inflicting an injury on a child. Can you report even though you are not required to? Absolutely: the protections that are present in the law are there for voluntary reporters as well as mandated reporters.
4) You are a gender studies instructor and you require students to keep a journal and to write about suggested topics. You review students’ journal entries periodically throughout the course. When reviewing one student’s journal, you discover that, in response to a prompt about power differentials in relationships, the student — 20-year-old Sarah — has written that as a child she was physically abused by her father. When her dad got drunk, he’d get mean and beat Sarah with a strap until she was black and blue. When you ask, she tells you she’s the youngest, the last to leave home, and there are no other kids there now.
Are you required to report?
Correct: You are not required to report.
Sarah is an adult. And there are no other children in the home. Even though what she described would be physical abuse, there is no “child” to report about. [Moreover, the journal is an education record, so the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act would prohibit disclosure because, given the facts here, an exception to this law does not exist.]
Incorrect: You are not required to report.
Sarah is an adult. And there are no other children in the home. Even though what she described would be physical abuse, there is no “child” to report about. [Moreover, the journal is an education record, so the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act would prohibit disclosure because, given the facts here, an exception to this law does not exist.]
1) You are an ER doctor. A mother brings her one-year-old toddler Andrew to the emergency room, very concerned about the pain her child seems to be experiencing in his leg. You have X-rays taken, which show the leg is broken. You ask her how the injury occurred, and she tells you that she was sliding down a park slide with Andrew on her lap and that immediately afterwards he complained of pain in the leg. The break you see in the X-rays is not an uncommon injury in toddlers whose caregivers slide with the child on their lap, as the adult’s weight can jam the child’s leg into the side of the slide, breaking it. You explain this to the mother, and she is stunned; she thought she was being careful and protective.
Are you required to report?
Correct: You are not required to report.
The injury is completely consistent with the explanation, so there is no reason to doubt the mother’s explanation. The injury is accidental in cause, as the parent had no reason to know that sliding with the child was dangerous.
Incorrect: You are not required to report.
The injury is completely consistent with the explanation, so there is no reason to doubt the mother’s explanation. The injury is accidental in cause, as the parent had no reason to know that sliding with the child was dangerous.
2) You are a police officer responding to a call from a mother that her daughter is out of control. Sixteen-year-old Andi and her parents were shouting at each other. She’d been grounded for defiant behavior but was intending to leave the house anyway to meet up with friends. She swore at her mother when she called the police, and her father blocked her way as she attempted to leave, saying “You don’t talk to your mother that way” and “You’ll do as you’re told if you want to live in this house.” Andi responded: “I’d have to be fricking’ nuts to want to live here” and grabbed the doorknob. Her father shoved her away from the door as hard as he could, and Andi hit her head against a bookcase, sustaining a fairly deep laceration to the skull. The father tells you he never intended to hurt his daughter that way.
Are you required to report?
Correct: You are required to report.
Andi has sustained a severe injury, and it was not accidental in cause, even though the father did not intend to cause the injury. A reasonable person would conclude that shoving someone very hard can result in injuries. It does not matter that the youth was very aggravating and testing her parents’ patience. Teenage non-compliance is part of normal development, and parents are responsible to exercise emotional control.
Incorrect: You are required to report.
Andi has sustained a severe injury, and it was not accidental in cause, even though the father did not intend to cause the injury. A reasonable person would conclude that shoving someone very hard can result in injuries. It does not matter that the youth was very aggravating and testing her parents’ patience. Teenage non-compliance is part of normal development, and parents are responsible to exercise emotional control.
3) A mom arrives at the day care center where you work to pick up 2-year-old Chou who is having a melt-down. The more the mom tries to put her winter clothing on, the more she fights and screams, and the angrier the mom gets. She jerks the child around, forcing her arms through the sleeves and jamming her feet into her boots. Chou starts to cry hysterically and mom yells at her that she’ll give her something to cry about. Chou is unable to calm down. She drags her across the parking lot and throws her against the car. You can hear her head thud and hear the mom scream, "See what you made me do?"" She throws her into hier car seat and drives off, tires squealing.
Are you required to report?
Correct: You are required to report.
Even though you are not in a position to actually see injuries, there is reason to suspect that Chou might have sustained injuries to his head. The injuries cannot be considered accidental, as a reasonable person would conclude upon witnessing the mother’s behavior toward Chou that it could result in injuries. Because the mom’s behavior appears to be out of control and violent, there is also reason to suspect Chou could be subjected to additional injuries.
Incorrect: You are required to report.
Even though you are not in a position to actually see injuries, there is reason to suspect that Chou might have sustained injuries to his head. The injuries cannot be considered accidental, as a reasonable person would conclude upon witnessing the mother’s behavior toward Chou that it could result in injuries. Because the mom’s behavior appears to be out of control and violent, there is also reason to suspect Chou could be subjected to additional injuries.
4) When eight-year-old Jesse arrives in your classroom one morning you notice that he seems upset. When you ask him what’s wrong, he tells you that his dad gave him “a whoopin’” last night. You ask him what “a whoopin’” is, and he says that’s when his dad slaps him on the bottom for being bad. When you ask, he says he was slapped on his butt, that it doesn’t hurt to sit down and did not leave a mark, and the bad thing he did was push his four-year-old sister down. Jesse says his dad told him to apologize to his sister, and he did, and his dad was happy he did, but sometimes Jesse still feels sad when he thinks about what he did to his sister.
Are you required to report?
Correct: You are not required to report.
There are no indications of injuries, and the reason for the corporal punishment (hurting his little sister) does not indicate a father who is out of control or enjoys inflicting punishment. It is important to avoid making assumptions when hearing words like "whoopin'" and to find out what the child means when he says it, if possible.
Incorrect: You are not required to report.
There are no indications of injuries, and the reason for the corporal punishment (hurting his little sister) does not indicate a father who is out of control or enjoys inflicting punishment. It is important to avoid making assumptions when hearing words like "whoopin'" and to find out what the child means when he says it, if possible.
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