In order to provide the best quality service to schools and agencies, as well as to children, we abide by the following guidelines when it comes to Mandated Reporting and Confidentiality issues. 

 

Protecting our children is the responsibility of us all.  But certain professionals, due to their contact with children, have special responsibilities as mandated reporters of suspected child abuse.  As employees of The Crime Victims’ Center of Chester County, Inc., we are mandated reporters. 

 

As mandated reporters and also professionals trained to respond to disclosures of child abuse, we are available to assist your school in handling disclosures in an appropriate and sensitive manner. When it comes to child abuse, the fewer times a child must repeat his or her story, the better. We are available to assist whether or not we are actually present in your school to present programs. We can be contacted 24 hours a day at (610) 692-7420 or (610) 692-7273.

 

Because we want children to have a safe place to talk about safety issues we assure them of our policy of confidentiality, except in mandated reporting situations, which we will explain to them in an age-appropriate way.

 

We encourage each student to speak with his or her guidance counselor and/or principal. However, for whatever reason, if they do not feel comfortable doing this, we will not tell anyone what the student has discussed with us. 

 

We may ask for your assistance to make a report. If you are unavailable or the child is hesitant about discussing what has happened, we will make the report ourselves. This is part of our responsibility as a mandated reporter.

 

Please be assured we will make every effort to work as a team for the benefit of the child. 

 

In a mandated reporting situation, we will tell you that we have made a call to Childline. Other than that, unless the child tells you her/himself or gives us permission to talk to you, we will not discuss anything else that we have been told by the student.

 

Please know the issue of confidentiality is important in providing a safe, comfortable environment for a child to talk about what has happened and the feelings involved.