Reporting Child Abuse - Massachusetts

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Massachusetts

Under Massachusetts law, certain individuals in their professional capacities (including doctors and other health care professionals and employees, drug and alcohol counselors, mental health professionals, teachers and school administrators, child care or day care employees, probation officers, social workers, clergy, foster parents, firefighters and law enforcement officers, among others) are required to report known or suspected child abuse by telephone or in person to the department of children and families within forty eight hours, and are thereafter required to file a written report with the department of children and families. A mandated reporter may additionally file a report with local law enforcement or a child advocate about the abuse. Hospitals are required to inform local district attorneys, law enforcement agencies, and the department with physical evidence of abuse. Any other person not specified by this statue may report known or suspected abuse of a child to the department of children and families.

Child abuse is defined to include physical injury, emotional injury, neglect, or sexual abuse.

To access the entire chapter of the relevant official Massachusetts Code online, follow:

http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXVII/Chapter119end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Links to the specific sections summarized above, including definitions, in an unofficial[1] version of the Code online, are available as follows:

http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXVII/Chapter119/Section51A

http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXVII/Chapter119/Section21

To access more information on Massachusetts reporting of abuse, warning signs, and information for mandatory reporters, see the Department of Health and Human Services website:

http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/consumer/family-services/child-abuse-neglect/reporting-abuse.html

http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/consumer/family-services/child-abuse-neglect/definitions.html

http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/consumer/family-services/child-abuse-neglect/

http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/consumer/family-services/child-abuse-neglect/overview.html

Child-at-Risk Hotline

800-792-5200