LA County Re-Thinks Mandated Reporter Rules

The LA County Commission for Children and Families is the latest agency to take a second look at the current emphasis on mandated reporting.  As the director said in a recent interview, “We’ve spent decades conditioning professionals to over-report, allowing the child welfare system to sort it all out on the back end,” Hunter said in her interview with The Imprint. “There is growing recognition that the child welfare system is not the panacea.”

She also pointed out that the mismatch between reports and substantiations also applies to LA County. In 2022, 23% of all mandated reports came from educators. Yet, the agency substantiated only 6% of these reports.

In response, LA County hopes to shift the focus towards reporting more cases to resource agencies and fewer cases to law enforcement. However, it is doubtful that training mandated reporters alone will solve the problem. Law enforcement agencies also must understand the repercussions of over-reporting. In many states, failure to report can result in charges that disqualify individuals from working with children. This creates a strong incentive to report any suspicion, regardless of the actual risk. Until this incentive changes, no amount of training will effectively address over-reporting.