Reply To: ACS

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#894224
aurora77
Participant

Hello MorahRach,

I am a child advocate attorney in a different state, where I have both represented children and before that represented a major city’s child welfare department (the city social workers).

When people have inquired of me in that capacity about things similar to your inquiries here, I have advised them that, in my state, there are criminal charges (misdemeanors) that can be brought against mandated reporters who fail to report to the local child abuse hotline.

In my very brief Internet search into New York’s child welfare laws, it appears to me that New York imposes both criminal penalties and can seek to hold mandatory reporters who fail to report liable in civil court for any damages that result due to that failure to report.

G-d forbid anything happens in the next two weeks.

I understand that you have a newborn and are moving, which makes the timing awful.

Nonetheless, I can not encourage you strongly enough to make the report as soon as possible, based upon the fact that you are a mandatory reporter and due to the civil and criminal penalties that New York imposes on mandatory reporters who do not report.