Serving in the field of child care comes with the responsibility to help protect and safeguard the well-being of the children in your care. While most of the daily duties of a child care professional focus on keeping children safe in-the-moment, another facet of the profession is being placed in the position of reporting suspected child maltreatment, which can sometimes be a difficult task for child care professionals who have a close relationship with the child and the child’s family (who may or may not be the alleged perpetrator of the maltreatment).
During this presentation, participants will learn how to look for signs of child maltreatment and take the appropriate steps to report suspicions of child abuse and/or neglect to the appropriate authorities according to South Dakota’s mandated reporting guidelines and will develop skills to handle this difficult responsibility.
Objectives
After completion of this presentation, participants should be able to:
- Define and understand the duties of a mandated reporter in South Dakota
- Identify the signs of physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse and neglect
- Identify when a mandated report of child maltreatment must be made
- Identify the steps to follow when making a mandated report of child maltreatment in the state of South Dakota
- Recognize the ethical gray areas that may occur when deciding whether to report suspicions or not
Presentation length is 2 hours and meets criteria for the Detecting and Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect training category established by the South Dakota Division of Child Care Services.
A certificate of attendance is provided to each participant upon the completion of the presentation. Participants are responsible for tracking and submitting their own training hours to the appropriate regulatory agency.
If you provide child care in a state other than South Dakota, please contact me to learn how to receive approval for this training opportunity from your state’s child care licensing board.