{"id":33112,"date":"2019-04-01T11:39:10","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T17:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/?p=33112"},"modified":"2019-04-01T11:39:10","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T17:39:10","slug":"recognizing-and-responding-to-child-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/sunday-school\/recognizing-and-responding-to-child-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Recognizing and Responding to Child Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Child protective service agencies received a national estimate of 4.1 million child abuse referrals in 2017, involving approximately 7.5 million children.<\/p>\n<p>Would you know what to do if you suspected a child in your Sunday school was being abused?<\/p>\n<p>The sentencing of five employees at a church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, arrested for a two-week delay in notifying authorities of sexual abuse allegations, serves as a stark reminder of the importance of complying with state mandatory child abuse reporting laws.<\/p>\n<p><em>Every state has a child abuse reporting law that requires persons designated as mandatory reporters to report known or reasonably suspected incidents of child abuse<\/em><em>.\u00a0<\/em>While statutes vary by state, most mandatory child abuse reporting laws require an immediate report by telephone once a mandatory reporter has reasonable suspicion to believe abuse has occurred.\u00a0 The call needs to be followed up within a specified time period (typically 24 to 48 hours) by a written report.<\/p>\n<p>The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act provides the existing definition of child abuse and neglect as, at a minimum:<\/p>\n<p><em>Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation; or an act or failure to act, which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Mandatory child abuse reporting laws, and how they impact church workers, vary by state. Information on abuse reporting may be found on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.childwelfare.gov\/topics\/responding\/reporting\/how\/\">Child Welfare Information Gateway<\/a> website, provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. <em>For help with reporting child abuse and neglect or to speak with a counselor, contact Childhelp at\u00a01<\/em><em>&#8211;<\/em>800-422-4453.<\/p>\n<p>[LINK TO CHILD WELFARE INFORMATION GATEWAY: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.childwelfare.gov\/topics\/can\/\">https:\/\/www.childwelfare.gov\/topics\/can\/<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Of course, reporting abuse to authorities is only possible when those who work with children are trained to recognize the signs of abuse. Shepherd\u2019s Watch\u00ae has compiled a list of abuse symptoms for your use when training staff.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/group.mediafire.com\/download\/2wtyafkw8tjhx5k\/shepherdwatch_abusesymptoms.pdf\/file\">Download here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month! When we work together to prevent abuse, or to intervene when we suspect a child is being abused, we keep kids and ministry safe![\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\u2013 \u2013 Taken from a recent\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.group.com\/category\/ministry-resources\/volunteer-management\/shepherds-watch-background-checks.do\">Shepherd\u2019s Watch<\/a>\u00a0newsletter. Sign up today for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.group.com\/category\/ministry-resources\/volunteer-management\/shepherds-watch-background-checks.do\">Shepherd\u2019s Watch Background Checks<\/a>\u00a0and receive your free monthly newsletter filled with advice and tips on keeping your church safe.<\/p>\n<p><em>(We love to provide tips to keep your ministry safe. You may also want to consult your local legal advisors to get their perspective on this topic!)<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Child protective service agencies received a national estimate of 4.1 million child abuse referrals in 2017, involving approximately 7.5 million children. Would you know what to do if you suspected a child in your Sunday school was being abused? The sentencing of five employees at a church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, arrested for a two-week delay in notifying authorities of sexual [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":33114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shepherds-watch","category-sunday-school"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Recognizing and Responding to Child Abuse - Group Children&#039;s Ministry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Child protective service agencies received a national estimate of 4.1 million child abuse referrals in 2017, involving approximately 7.5 million children.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/sunday-school\/recognizing-and-responding-to-child-abuse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Recognizing and Responding to Child Abuse - 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