Schools’ Misuse of Child Welfare System Puts Children at Risk

Coordination and partnership between school systems and child welfare systems is essential. Teachers, who in most states are mandatory reporters, often serve as the frontline when it comes to identifying children in their classrooms who might be suffering from abuse or neglect and filing reports with their local child welfare agencies. As a result, educators and other school staff make up the largest percentage of abuse and neglect reports, and protect countless children every year by. But recently we’ve seen several troubling cases of schools misusing—and thus endangering—this important relationship.