RICHMOND — Virginia’s child welfare system grapples with a surge of unfounded reports that critics say stem from overly broad mandatory reporting laws, disrupting families and straining resources.
Just under 3,000 of more than 90,000 annual reports to Child Protective Services are ‘founded,’ meaning abuse or neglect was determined to have occurred after an investigation, said Valerie L’Herrou, deputy director of the Virginia Poverty Law Center’s Center for Family Advocacy.
L’Herrou explained that some parents are forced into impossible choices because of poverty, and can face neglect accusations even though their actions stem from economic necessity, not intentional disregard for their children’s well-being.
“And that’s when the nosy neighbor picks up the phone and calls CPS,” she said, “and so these are the kinds of things: a family’s water gets turned off because they can’t afford to pay their water bill and so kids show up to school unbathed, and the teacher calls CPS.”
L’Herrou said agencies such as the Virginia Department of Social Services are now classifying some situations as “Poverty Adjacent Neglect,” acknowledging that families often lack the resources they need. She advocated for solutions that address these root causes, including raising the minimum wage, strengthening programs such as SNAP and TANF, and expanding access to affordable child care.
Mandatory reporting laws have also created a dilemma for teachers, doctors and other professionals. Anna Daniszewski, a staff attorney for family defense at the VPLC, emphasized that people often fail to recognize the enduring and traumatic consequences of a false report to Child Protective Services.
“There’s still harm in a call that leads to an assessment or inquiry or investigation that turns out to be unfounded,” she said. “Depending on if the report is about a bruise on an arm, a child might be strip-searched, and that’s obviously traumatic, or even just the experience of having CPS knock on your door.”
Advocates have said one solution would be using family resource centers to allow parents to ask for help without the fear of involving CPS. They also want better training for mandatory reporters.
Teachers are the top reporters of neglect and abuse, and groups such as the American Federation of Teachers now support an approach known as “mandated support,” giving them a broader range of options beyond mandatory reporting.
