There’s a lot of confusion as to what constitutes a legitimate report of child maltreatment. We’ve seen many parents define a legitimate report based solely on whether they think it’s accurate in its suspicion- which is not how such reports are evaluated for acceptance. Because CPS is not clear as to what constitutes a legitimate report and what options exist for recourse, many families end up making assumptions that end up making things worse for them later- not better. So what is a legitimate report of child maltreatment?
The legality of a child maltreatment report is based solely on the intent of the reporter. CPS encourages reports to be made by anyone who has reason to believe, in good faith, that child maltreatment may be occurring. This does not mean it is occurring- just that based on what they’ve heard and/or seen, it is merely possible. This covers an extremely wide range of potentially questionable scenarios: the busybody neighbor imagines a series of events has a sinister meaning that doesn’t actually exist, the nurse who sees a generic bruise and isn’t satisfied by the child’s or parent’s explanation, the teacher who sees a high number of unexcused absences in a student’s record and makes one call to the family with no answer…all of these scenarios also have numerous potential plausible explanations.
The assumption is that if there really is a plausible explanation, CPS will find it, come to that conclusion, everyone will move on and all will be fine. What isn’t taken into account is the traumatic experience that is a CPS case is for a family and the rush to drastic action CPS agencies have a high propensity to take- even with the most frivolous of concerns. Even an unsubstantiated CPS case is still a traumatic experience. By design, CPS cases are adversarial in nature and the mere possibility that the family could be broken up a career could be destroyed and the complete loss of control- the fate of your family rests in the hands of the assigned agency employees and how they see you.
This standard of the mere belief that child maltreatment is one possible explanation, coupled with professionally mandated reporter requirements lead to an enormous amount of reports made nationwide- the vast majority of which no reasonable person would come to the conclusion warrants drastic action. That being said, there are a minority of cases where drastic action is warranted and it is the mere possibility that what appears to be the latest frivolous report has a much darker reality behind it that could be revealed and if it isn’t, that child will continue to suffer and possibly die by the hand of his or her abuser.
The opposite of a report made in good faith is one made in bad faith. Examples of reports made in bad faith include, but are not limited to: the ex-spouse who makes a report when there is no child maltreatment by the alleged subject with the explicit intent to gain leverage in a custody battle; the school staff who make good on a threat to make a report to CPS, because the parent won’t blindly accept the services the school is demanding they be allowed to provide, the landlord who repeatedly makes reports where there is no evidence of child maltreatment in an effort to get the tenant to leave…these reporters run afoul of the law (just how they do varies by state- in some, it’s a misdemeanor and in others, certain circumstances or repeated reports can be a felony. Ways of proving it may also differ). Often, it requires gathering hard evidence (phone calls, text messages, audio and/or video recordings, social media posts, e-mails, etc) that show the reporter intended to make a report of child maltreatment against you with malicious intent (in bad faith) and show that no child maltreatment was found on the basis of said report (for more information relevant to your specific state or situation, schedule an UrgentAssist Call or send an UrgentAssist Message).
Because almost all reports made to CPS are assumed to be in good faith, not much scrutiny is done at the intake stage. Actually determining whether a report was made in good faith is a difficult task for a parent subjected to CPS involvement. Since all reports are confidential and in 48 states and Washington, D.C., reports can be made anonymously, you’d have to have substantial hard evidence supporting who you believe to be the identity of the reporter in your specific case. While there are ways to stop the flow of bad faith reports in those cases where there is a pattern of repeated abuse of the child maltreatment reporting system, that doesn’t stop the active case already in progress. There are still potential consequences and at CPSprotect Consulting Services, this is where our expert child welfare consultants come in. We always recommend having an expert (one of our child welfare consultants, a licensed attorney you trust or an informed advocate as appropriate) whenever facing CPS in person and always schedule a UrgentAssist call to strategize as soon as you’re made aware a case has been opened. Never face CPS alone!