Mandatory Reporting Archives - Promising Futures

Explore and learn about the complexities of mandatory reporting laws, practice, harm done and how advocates and policy makers can shift our collective energy towards mandatory supporting and away from reporting families impacted by DV. Domestic violence is a complex dynamic in families that requires unique and additional considerations when deciding whether a child abuse report is needed. Filing child abuse reports often has impacts that the reporters do not see. It has been repeatedly documented that mandated reporters fail to recognize or consider the impact of poverty, systemic racism, and cross generational trauma when they suspect maltreatment. This lack of awareness contributes to and compounds bias in mandated reporting, resulting in generations of communities of color experiencing the child welfare system as a system of surveillance and not support.