Top News: Mandatory reporting laws are a failure

When a person has a suspicion that a child is being abused or neglected, laws in every state require members of certain professions—and sometimes everyone—to report those suspicions to law enforcement or child protective services.

On its face, this seems like a good idea. But it has actually been counterproductive to the original intent of protecting children.

We have said this for years, and we are not the only ones.

Those pointing out the detrimental effects of these laws are coming from both sides of the aisle and from corners you probably would not expect.

This issue may seem dull at first, but this is one of the top reasons why innocent families find themselves in the crosshairs of false accusations, traumatic investigations, and sometimes even worse.

Even the country’s former top child welfare official agrees:

“‘The way our mandatory reporting system exists right now — my opinion is that it does more harm than it does good,’ [former head of the federal Children’s Bureau] Jerry Milner told [Colorado’s] Mandatory Reporting Task Force.”

Every state has laws that compel certain persons to report suspected child abuse. Yet evidence is mounting that the majority of mandated reports are unsubstantiated but nonetheless lead to harmful investigations against innocent parents.

For now, the system is not changing, but neither is Heritage Defense’s commitment to give parents peace of mind against CPS investigations by defending our member families.

“Parents accused of abuse and neglect have few of the protections that defendants are guaranteed in criminal cases, the right to see evidence against them and to confront their accusers, for example. Most don’t have access to lawyers while their homes are searched and their children are questioned and their bodies examined. The burden of proof is lower than in criminal cases.”

While we could have written this ourselves, it instead comes from a much different source. 

We encourage parents to educate themselves by reading this thorough and generally very helpful article examining the issues with mandatory reporting laws.