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51A Online Mandated Reporter Training
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).
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 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 the various forms child maltreatment (and what is not maltreatment)
- Know how to file a 51A Report
- Know how to respond when a child makes a disclosure
- Understand what happens after a 51A Report is filed