What are examples of updated mandated reporter education, training, and tools?
A growing body of evidence demonstrates that the current system of mandated reporting may inflict unnecessary trauma and intrusion into the lives of children and families, while not necessarily achieving its primary goal of keeping children safe. Child welfare leaders, community stakeholders, and lived experts across the country are raising important questions about the current design and approach of mandated reporting for child protection, as well as exploring new avenues to support families in crisis beyond the child protection hotline, such as helplines and community pathways.
Mandated reporters do not intend to create trauma for children and families. Far from it. Focus group research shows that professionals who work with children often make child protection hotline reports when immediate danger to a child is not present because they want to get support for the family and don’t know how else to do so.
Creating better education, training, and support for mandated reporters, including decision-making tools and resource guides, is one important lever for transforming mandated reporting. Other levers include: Engaging people with lived expertise; examining the latest research and data trends; building a new narrative and shifting mindsets; reviewing the impacts of relevant statutory and policy approaches; and designing pathways for families to access support outside of the child welfare system.
Addressing all of these issues is critical to ensure that the child protection agency is focused on responding to safety-related concerns for children, as well as preventing children and families from experiencing the traumas associated with unwarranted investigation or separation.
This brief highlights the experiences of Los Angeles County, New Hampshire, and the state of New York in revising and transforming mandated reporter training and education to improve safety-related decision-making, reduce unnecessary hotline calls, and increase access to services for non-safety related concerns. It also presents rationale for other jurisdictions to examine and transform their own approaches, and offers some key considerations and strategies for doing so.1
As community members and people who have been impacted and harmed by the child welfare system, we say let organizations within the community be the folks that help support the community.
– Halimah Washington, Family Well-Being Project Manager, Rise
Background
In FY2023, about 4.4 million reports were made to child protection hotlines (involving approximately 7.8 million children), with just under half of those reports (48%) screened in for further investigation or assessment. About 71% of the screened-in reports were from professionals legally designated as mandated reporters in most states (including law-enforcement officers, school officials, and medical personnel).2 Among the children reported to the hotline, an estimated 93% were either screened out for no further action or were investigated but unsubstantiated as victims of child abuse or neglect.3 Responding to unwarranted calls to the child protection hotline diverts critical staff resources and attention away from the children and families who may need child protective services the most for safety-related reasons.
The current mandated reporting process also can discourage families from getting the help they need. An unwarranted report to the hotline is not harm neutral. Research shows that child protection investigations impose stress and trauma on children and families, and can interfere with the family’s livelihood, relationships, and physical and mental well-being.4 Research shows that mandated reporting is a key driver of racially disproportionate outcomes of child welfare system involvement,5 with disproportionality occurring at the very front end of the child welfare continuum and continuing through to other key decisions, including out-of-home placement and the achievement of timely permanency.6,7,8,9
Strategies for revising training and education
Jurisdictions that are changing the way mandated reporters are educated and trained have identified several important considerations:
Collaborate with those most impacted
It is important to include both mandated reporters from various professions and people with lived expertise in the revision process. The State of New Hampshire engaged more than 2,000 community professionals in its transformation process, including prominent roles for family members who have been impacted by the child welfare system (e.g. in leadership positions on workgroups and as community navigators who consult with mandated reporters). In Los Angeles County, philanthropic partners including the Center for Strategic Partnerships and Greater L.A. Education Foundation provided early support for listening sessions about the impact of the child welfare system and mandated reporting among educators and families.
Jurisdictional example: New York
In May 2023, the New York State Office of Children and Family Services revised its mandated reporter training and issued an administrative directive for staff to complete it.
The new training was developed with broad stakeholder input and funded through a $100,000 grant to Prevent Child Abuse New York. Stakeholders included an impacted parent advisory group, an implicit bias advisory group, related professionals (education, early childhood, healthcare), partner agencies, and intra-agency departments. They discussed the vision for the training, gathered research and resources, and helped draft and review content.
The free online training takes about three hours and is in English and Spanish. One of the nine modules put participants in the role of a mandated reporter dealing with real-life scenarios. Pre- and post-tests measure knowledge, and users can ask follow-up questions via email.
Lead with safety
Jurisdictions should anticipate concerns about child safety emerging when discussing changes to mandated reporting. Respond to those concerns by communicating that revised training and education of mandated reporters is not an attempt to undermine professionals’ ability to make reports when warranted for safety-related reasons. Jurisdictions also could uplift that no compelling evidence links mandated reporting to preventing child maltreatment,10,11,12,13,14 and share that unnecessary reports by mandated reporters may jeopardize child safety both by overwhelming the resources needed to investigate reports where there is a safety-related concern and by eroding family trust in public systems.
Share data
Mandated reporters often are surprised to learn about the low substantiation rates of their reports, and the very small percentage of cases that receive services as a result. Hearing that most children who are the subject of a child protection report ultimately stay with their families may help some professionals better understand why it is so important for the community to bolster families with services and not rely solely on the hotline when concerns arise. Sharing data showing racial disproportionality also can be impactful for mandated reporters, particularly in the context of potential implicit bias.
In New Hampshire, stakeholders received regular data reports during the COVID-19 pandemic showing that while the overall number of mandated reports decreased, actual case openings did not. This helped mandated reporters consider that when schools were open, a high volume of unnecessary reporting may have been taking place.
Jurisdictional example: Los Angeles County
The Mandated Supporting Initiative in Los Angeles County began in 2022 with a Knowledge is Power data summit hosted by the Racial Justice Committee of the county’s Commission on Children and Families. The summit shared data and stories to explore what brings Black families into contact with the county’s child welfare system, and to propel the development of strategies to create meaningful change at the individual, organizational, and systems levels.
Enhanced mandated reporter training and decision support are cornerstones of the comprehensive initiative, which has multiple components. A training supplement informs reporters about a state law that narrowed the definition of reportable general neglect. This training, released in early 2024, operationalizes the new law, provides concrete guidance and decision support, and discusses bias in decision-making. It also disabuses mandated reporters of the myth that overreporting is harmless by educating them on the consequences, such as racial disproportionality in the child welfare system.
A curriculum development guide for organizations that want to create their own trainings in alignment with the initiative is under development, as is a training with sector-specific modules.
The initiative has pulled in stakeholders from outside the immediate child welfare sphere, including the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
Discuss the harm from unwarranted reports
During listening sessions in Los Angeles County, many mandated reporters stated they were unaware of the consequences of unnecessary reporting. Some jurisdictions have made attempts to humanize the experience of being on the other end of an unfounded accusation of abuse or neglect, encouraging mandated reporters to imagine the potential impacts to a family’s livelihood, relationships, and physical and emotional well-being after a child protection worker knocks on their door.
New York changed its messaging strategy from “When in doubt, report,” to “You don’t have to report a family to support a family.” In New Hampshire, mandated reporters who reach out to a community navigator for decision-making support have the opportunity to hear about the potential impact of a report on families firsthand from someone with direct experience with the child welfare system.
It has been really important to avoid demonizing people, groups, organizations, or sectors. Mandated reporting law, policy, and practice has been coercive to professionals as well. We have given them an extremely consequential responsibility and failed to prepare them for it.
– Tamara Hunter, Executive Director, Los Angeles County Commission for Children and Families
Address the distinction between poverty and neglect
Attempts to revise the training and education of mandated reporters often focus on reports of neglect, which too often are conflated with family poverty, which may be addressed through community supports. Training and education on what circumstances rise to the level of a hotline call — versus non-safety related concerns that don’t warrant a call — was an important goal of the new state mandated reporter training in New York. In Los Angeles County, a training supplement released in early 2024 informs professionals about a 2022 law change that narrowed the definition of reportable general neglect and stated that economic hardship is not the same as general neglect.
Jurisdictional example: New Hampshire
New Hampshire is piloting a community navigator program, and is developing a community response guide, Community navigators are people with lived experience of the child welfare system who provide additional resources and information to both families and reporters in screened-out cases. They are available by phone to help mandated reporters make right decisions; approach families with their concerns in more effective, strength-based ways; and identify resources in the community that can help.
A statewide nonprofit, Granite Pathways, was awarded the contract for staffing the pilot, which launched in July 2023. The pilot currently shares staff and other resources with the Strength to Succeed program, which provides peer support for child welfare-involved families. The program reaches only a small number of families currently, but early feedback suggests that contact with the program may positively impact mandated reporters’ thinking about future cases, making them more likely to seek out community supports for families in lieu of calling the hotline. The agency hopes to expand over time.
Include decision-making support
In Los Angeles County, the training supplement also includes information about implicit bias and critical thinking practice, as well as a simple fill-in decision tree for concerns of general neglect designed to help people make better decisions. In New York, the new training was required to include protocols to reduce implicit bias and includes an online decision tree. New Hampshire is working with Evident Change to develop a statewide community response guide — an online, real-time tool to help mandated reporters make more equitable decisions by considering a full range of options to help families, including connecting them to local service agencies when appropriate. The state also is piloting a community navigator program (see jurisdictional example sidebar).
Provide alternatives
Any effort to improve training and education of mandated reporters about what constitutes reportable abuse or neglect must also provide an accessible and reliable referral pathway to other community supports. In New Hampshire, this approach is being piloted through the community navigator program. New York has established an alternative helpline: HEARS (Help, Empower, Advocate, Reassure, and Support), which the state child welfare agency runs but staffs separately from the child protection hotline. Mandated reporters or families themselves can call HEARS to learn about community resources. In New York City, a new dedicated support line fields calls from mandated reporters and families seeking community services. Social workers staff the support line and connect families to a range of community services, including those that can provide immediate assistance.
Tailor training by type of mandated reporter
Different groups of professionals interact with families in very different contexts and circumstances, and have different professional norms, standards, and requirements for mandated reporting. It may be helpful to tailor all or part of mandated reporter training by profession, particularly for the most common groups of reporters. In Los Angeles County, inconsistent and inadequate mandated reporter curricula led the team to begin developing a type-specific training that will customize information for the various professions, such as law enforcement, education, and health care. The New York City Administration for Children’s Services used the new statewide training as a catalyst to deliver specialized sessions for school staff and develop an introductory video that features senior leadership from both the school district and child protection agency.
Addressing common challenges
Decentralized training
State and county child protection agencies typically do not host trainings for all mandated reporters. Organizations that employ large numbers of mandated reporters, such as school districts, often receive training through other partners, including insurance companies and other entities primarily concerned with risk management. In New York, the state child welfare agency developed a training syllabus that reflects guidance laid out in state statute — and others are expected to align with it. All mandated reporters in New York are required to take the new training by April 2025, with employers (not the state) managing compliance. In New Hampshire, the child protection agency plans to work closely with training partners to ensure the new key messages are fully conveyed.
Concerns around liability
Laws penalizing reporters for failing to report maltreatment may act as incentive to report, even when safety concerns are low. As a result, any guidance for mandated reporters must address and be aligned with current law and policy around reporting and liability for failure to report.15 New Hampshire is conducting extensive consultation with the state attorney general’s office in advance of releasing its community response guide. New York similarly sought counsel on what could be said in the new training, as well as how it could be framed.
Differences in stakeholder perspectives
Jurisdictions may have to navigate challenging stakeholder engagement sessions as they work to transform mandated reporting. Leaders in New Hampshire emphasized the importance of establishing lasting, trusting relationships among those engaged in efforts to improve the education and training of mandated reporters. Transforming the mandated reporting process will take time, and those engaged in the process note that the extra energy and focused attention it has taken to hold frank conversations and understand stakeholder concerns has been worth it.
I think there is a lot of mutual respect that has grown between stakeholder groups in New Hampshire over the years. Not right away, but through the process, we all have come to respect that we bring different lenses, and we have created an open space to listen to each other. We’re all learning. If we can open up just one person’s perspective, I call that a win.
– Lori Hebert, Program Director, Strength to Succeed and Community Navigator, Granite Pathways
1 Content of this brief was informed by peer-to-peer conversations and interviews with professionals involved with mandated reporting transformation in Los Angeles County, New Hampshire, and New York, including: Tamara Hunter, Executive Director, Los Angeles County Commission for Children and Families; Alicia Garoupa, Chief of Wellbeing and Support Services, Los Angeles County Office of Education; Lori Hebert, Program Director, Granite Pathways; Sherry Ermel, Bureau Chief of Field Services, New Hampshire Department of Children, Youth and Families; Tracy Swanson, Senior Attorney, Office of the Ombudsman, New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS); Meaghan Fitzpatrick, Senior Attorney, OCFS; Gail Geohagen-Pratt, Deputy Commissioner for the Division of Child Welfare and Community Services, OCFS; Kristin Gleeson, Associate Commissioner, Child Welfare Division, OCFS; Halimah Washington, Community Coordinator, Rise; Teresa Marerro, Peer Support Program Coordinator, Rise.
2 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children’s Bureau (2025). Child Maltreatment 2023, pp. 6-9.
3 The data source is national estimates from Child Maltreatment 2023. The 93% figure is derived by subtracting the unique number of substantiated victims of maltreatment from the total number of children reported to a child protection hotline, and dividing that by the total number of children reported to a child protection hotline. The total number of children reported to a child protection hotline is a nationally estimated number calculated by multiplying the average number of children included in a report (1.8 rounded) by the total number of referrals.
4 Fong, K. (2020). Getting Eyes in the Home: Child Protective Services Investigations and State Surveillance of Family Life. American Sociological Review, 85(4), 610-638.
5 As a result of mandated reporting being the front door to the child welfare system, the practice by extension contributes to the overrepresentation of Black and American Indian/Alaska Native children that also exist at later touchpoints throughout the system. These inequitiesresult in poorer overall outcomes for Black and American Indian/Alaska Native children and their families. See: Cooper, T. A. (2013). Racial Bias in American Foster Care: The National Debate. Marquette Law Review, 97 (Winter 2013);Dettlaff, A. J., & Boyd, R. (2020). Racial Disproportionality and Disparities in the Child Welfare System: Why Do They Exist, and What Can Be Done to Address Them? The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 692(1), 253–274.
6 Alliance for Children’s Rights. (2021, February 23). The Path to Racial Equity in Child Welfare: Valuing Family and Community. Alliance for Children’s Rights;
7 Cooper, T. A. (2013).
8 Dettlaff, A. J., & Boyd, R. (2020).
9 Edwards, F. (2019). Family Surveillance: Police and the Reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 5(1), 50–70.
10 Hixenbaugh, M., Khimm, S., & Philip, A. (2022, October 12). Mandatory reporting was supposed to stop severe child abuse. It punishes poor families instead [Special Report]. NBC News, in partnership with ProPublica;
11 Itzkowitz, M., & Olson, K. (2022). Closing the Front Door of Child Protection: Rethinking Mandated Reporting. Child Welfare, 100(2), 77–99.
12 McTavish, J. R., Kimber, M., Devries, K., Colombini, M., MacGregor, J. C. D., Wathen, C. N., Agarwal, A., & MacMillan, H. L. (2017). Mandated reporters’ experiences with reporting child maltreatment: A meta-synthesis of qualitative studies. BMJ Open, 7(10).
13 Raz, M. (2020). Abusive Policies: How the American Child Welfare System Lost Its Way. The University of North Carolina Press
14 Raz, M. (2022, September 19). Mandatory Reporting Isn’t the Solution. Public Square Magazine.
15 For example, a bill passed by the Texas Legislature in 2021changed the reporting standard from “cause to believe” to “reasonable cause to believe” in an attempt to deter false or frivolous allegations by reporters seeking to avoid criminal liability for failure to report.