Josue Lopez

SEDF 220
Hunter College
Jean Grenning
August 1st, 2018

Child Abuse and Neglect Paper

Today, child abuse continues to be a physical and psychological component that

prominently affects a person's development. In the state of New York, specifically, in section
412 of the Social Services Law and Section 1012 of the Family Court Act, defines child abuse as
"a child less than eighteen years of age whose parent or other person is legally responsible for
his/her care inflicts upon the child serious physical injury, creates a substantial risk of serious
physical injury, or commits an act of sex abuse against the child ". It should be noted that a child
can be abused and/or mistreated, and although the term "maltreatment" is not the same as
"abuse", both terms are associated, since maltreatment has to do with the physical, mental or
psychological condition to which the child is prone to suffer or is suffering under the
irresponsible care of the parent or guardian; as stated in said section, "Maltreatment occurs when
a parent ... responsible for the care of a child harms a child, or places a child in imminent danger
of harm".

Child abuse is an intolerable act, and therefore, as a future teacher of the city of New
York, one of the main responsibilities is to be a mandated reporter. That is, reporting an abuse is
vital, since it can save the child's life. The law of the State of New York requires this action to
ensure a positive environment within the life of the child in the academic and personal aspect.
The report must be made orally, preceded by a written report. It is essential to know that in order
to report child abuse or neglect, there must be honest and convincing causes, whether the child
speaks directly to the teacher, or when the child's parent speaks with the teacher when making
statements that have an incidence of abuse. For instance, if a teacher is experiencing poor
performance on one of his/her students, and the teacher decides to hold a meeting with the child's
parents to discuss the problem, the parents could say "he/she is always like that, he/she is good at
nothing. when he/she arrives home house, he/she will see. "This highlights a deduction of
psychological abuse, which can be prolonged to physical damage. This is a key suspicion to infer
that the child may be experiencing child neglect or abuse. The oral report that the teacher must
include ranges from the personal information of the child and his family, to the implications of
the suspect and the protection of the child in protective custody. Needless to say, this report must
be within the State of New York and that the child must be under 18 years of age, among other
elements. For this type of reason, it is relevant that the teacher always has all the student's
information and thus use it for protective purposes with respect to the child. Once the oral report
is made, a written report must be sent to the "Child Protective Services" within two days. Finally,
the most important responsibility of the teacher is to call the "NYS Central Register of Child
Abuse and Maltreatment": 1800-635-1522. After the entire process, it is determined that the
teacher had good intentions to make the report and the Child Protective Services maintains
confidentiality with the sources of the reported abuse. The consequences of not making a report
involve from civil to criminal charges, and even complicity; it is important that teachers make
the reports, to prevent future harm to the child and to prevent the loss of employment.

The types of abuse are diverse and range from different categories: physical abuse, sexual
abuse, physical neglect, emotional neglect and environmental abuse.