Who Shall Report
Under Indiana law any individual who has a reason to believe (IC 31-33-5-1) a child is a victim of abuse or neglect has the duty to make a report; therefore, each citizen of Indiana is considered a “mandated reporter.” While reporting child abuse is everyone’s responsibility, Indiana law requires a more stringent standard of reporting in some professions. These professional reporters are staff members in a medical or other public or private institution, school, facility, or agency. These reporters are legally obligated by their profession to report alleged child abuse or neglect.
School professionals are required to immediately make a report to the Department of Child Services (DCS) or the local law enforcement agency. After making the report, the individual shall notify the individual in charge of the institution, school, facility, or agency or the designated agent of the individual in charge of the institution, school, facility, or agency that the report was made per IC 31- 33-5-2(b). If a school professional depends on a designee to make an immediate report and that report is not made in a timely manner, the school professional can be held liable under Indiana law. Indiana law specifically states that notification of the administrator or school corporation designee does not relieve the first individual of the responsibility of seeing that the matter is reported. Both parties are responsible for seeing that a report is made to DCS.