Law requires some to report child abuse concerns/Kansas
Law requires some to report child abuse concerns BY DEB GRUVER The Wichita Eagle Kansas Statute 38-1522 can make a world of difference in the lives of children. The law requires that certain professionals--such as doctors, teachers and counselors--report suspected child abuse and neglect. Failure to do so comes with a price: a class-B misdemeanor. The law likely came into play in the case of two small Wichita girls who investigators say were starved and tortured. Eight times since 2001, someone suspected the abuse or neglect of the two girls, ages 6 and 7, and made reports to the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. Teachers made some of those reports. Teachers, school administrators and other school workers are among those required to report child abuse. Wichita school district employees made 927 such reports last year, said Loren Pack, social work services coordinator for the district. School employees fill out reports that are sent to SRS and to Pack's office for record-keeping. The number of reports last year is in line with recent years. In 2000, the district made 895 reports; in 2001, 975; in 2002, 1,214; in 2003, 994; and in 2004, 927. Some reports may involve the same child. The majority--71 percent of reports--involve elementary-age children suspected of being physically, emotionally, mentally or sexually abused or neglected. School employees receive training about how to identify signs of abuse and neglect. "Each year the principals review the policy to all the staff," Pack said. Forrest Ehmke, a social work specialist at Via Christi Regional Medical Center, said a social worker usually makes the reports at Via Christi's hospitals if the child is a patient on a medical floor. If the patient is in the emergency room, a nurse would make the report to SRS. After business hours, when SRS is closed, hospital workers call police directly. But if a situation warrants it, the hospital also will call police during the day, he said. "If there is an immediate safety concern and the child needs to be immediately protected, we would contact the police department," he said. "They are the only ones who can take protective custody of a child without a court order." In 2005, Via Christi Regional Medical Center made 589 reports of suspected child abuse and neglect, Ehmke said. The year before, it made 591 reports. Through June 30 of this year, Via Christi has made 331 reports, Ehmke said. Hospital employees receive annual training about identification of abuse and neglect, he said. "What we try to be aware of... is a child coming in with an injury that is not consistent with an explanation the parent is providing," he said. Firefighters for the Wichita Fire Department learn about signs of abuse during medical training. What firefighters have been taught is not only to look at the physical evidence but also the environment the child is in and any unusual attitudes, said Deputy Fire Chief Mike Rudd. Firefighters typically call police. "We try to get intervention as soon as we can," he said. Reports by firefighters are rare because most people who call for emergency help know that workers will be in their homes. If there's a problem, "they're not likely to call and let us into the house," Rudd said. Wichita Clinic workers report directly to SRS unless a child is seen after hours, said marketing manager Angie Prather. Doctors, nurses and other staff required by law to make reports do so directly and not through a third person so that reports aren't lost or misconstrued, said Donna Johnson, director of medical affairs. Karen King, a social worker at Wesley Medical Center in the pediatric intensive care unit and pediatric floor, has a unique perspective about reporting. She used to work for SRS and has been on both sides: monitoring children's safety in the home and watching a child die in a hospital room. As a pediatric social worker at Wesley, King made 40 reports to Sedgwick County SRS workers last year and 23 to out-of-county workers. Through June of this year, she made 27 to Sedgwick County SRS workers and 17 to those in other counties. Those numbers were just for her area. As a former SRS worker, she knows how to word reports to get the most attention from investigators, King said. She said she understands firsthand the tough job SRS workers have. King remembers one time when a doctor looked at her while a child was slipping away because of abuse and said, "I don't know how you do what you do." She told him: "This is so much easier than working at SRS... it still is easier than being in the field." http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/news/local/crime_courts/15261966.htm