After Making a Report
What is required of me after I report suspected child abuse
or neglect?
This can vary from case to case. After a report is made, caseworkers may
conduct an investigation. The school, as the Chancellor’s Regulation
provides, is legally responsible for cooperating in these investigations.
This is true whether or not the allegations were reported by school personnel.
Assistance in investigations may vary from simply affording caseworkers
access to the child’s records, to permitting them to interview
the child on school property, to extensive interviews of any school employee
who lodges a report.
I have heard of many different child welfare agencies.
Which ones do
I deal with?
There are myriad agencies and their names seem to change with each administration or even sooner. For example, the city agency that oversees all child abuse case work—the Administration for Children’s Services—used to be called the Child Welfare Administration and before that was known as Special Services for Children. Caseworkers can come from a host of agencies, including ACS, the state Department of Social Services and the New York Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Ask your school team if you need clarification.
What happens if authorities decide to remove a child from school?
If caseworkers appear on school premises to take the child into custody,
the principal or his/her designee has the following responsibilities:
• Notifying the parent or guardian by telephone and following up in
writing immediately.
• Calling 911 for emergency assistance if the caseworker doesn’t
come by
3:00 p.m. and the child’s life and/or safety is in imminent
danger if sent home.
• Waiting with the child for assistance to arrive.
What am I supposed to do?
It is the principal who is obliged to take care of the child—not you. However, you may go with a child who is taken away if the child requests it and if you wish to. No one can order you to go.