Reporting of
Suspected Child Abuse or Neglect
Montessori School of Maui will follow the
guidelines set forth by the Child Protective Services of the State of Hawaii
Department of Human Services. Employees or officers of any public or
private school are required to report “if there is reason to believe that
child abuse or neglect has occurred or there exists a substantial risk that
child abuse or neglect will occur in the reasonably foreseeable future.”
Procedure
§
Any staff
member having evidence or suspicion of child abuse or neglect will report this
information to their supervisor. The Head of School will be informed
immediately.
§
Any
employee of MOMI is a mandated reporter.
§
Only The
Head of School will file a phone report from MOMI. He/she will consult with the
staff member to gather the information clearly.
§
If there
is a question of how to proceed, the Head of School can call and consult with
CPS regarding concerns or observations. He/she may deem that the situation is
not an emergency in nature i.e. not require immediate police response and may
request CPS to have a Social Worker contact the family. The Head of School may
have the Teacher contact the family, contact the family themselves or may
choose to have the CPS Social Worker contact them without prior notification.
§
Employees
or officers of any public or private school are required to report “if there is
reason to believe that child abuse or neglect has occurred or there exists a
substantial risk that child abuse or neglect will occur in the reasonably
foreseeable future.” These reports must be made to the Family and Adult
Services Division of the Dept. of Human Services (DHS). This report may
be made by telephone, followed with a written report within 48 hours of the
telephone report. The Head of School
will notify the parents of the child that a report has been made and will be
the sole source of information to the family.
§
All
dealings with police, staff and public media will be the responsibility of the
Head of School. No employee other than those authorized by the Head of School
is to deal with the police or media.
§
The
family’s confidentiality will be protected. The exceptions to this would be
when a court order subpoenas records, the police or CPS is investigating the
case or a signed Release of Information has been filed with the school.
§
The
confidentiality of the student’s records may also be superseded by court order.
In this case the school is required to surrender whatever documents the court
requests and may be required to submit reports.