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51A Online Mandated Reporter Training
Mandated reporters who are professionally licensed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are required to complete a training to learn how to recognize and report suspected child abuse and neglect.
Children by their very nature have a diminished ability to:
- Care for themselves
- Protect themselves
- Recognize when they are being maltreated, or
- Advocate for their own safety.
Mandated reporters play a critical role in protecting our children because they often are the very first people to see signs of or be told about child maltreatment (abuse, neglect, and/or exploitation).
Mandated reporting laws require certain individuals to notify child protective services when they know or suspect a child is being maltreated. In Massachusetts, this law is known as the 51A Law. Our child protective service agency is the Department of Children and Families (DCF).
This training was designed to help mandated reporters in Massachusetts:
- Understand their legal obligations under the 51A Law
- Recognize possible signs and symptoms of maltreatment
- Know how to respond when a child makes a disclosure
- Know how to file a 51A Report
- Understand what happens after a 51A Report is filed