Child Abuse Reporting Obligations

---

Matters that Must be Reported.  Florida's law requires that all school personnel immediately report to the Department of Children and Families (DCF) any knowledge or reasonable cause to suspect that a child has been abused, neglected, or abandoned.  Abuse includes sexual abuse by another child.

Abuse:  any willful act or threatened act that results in any physical, mental, or sexual injury or harm that causes or is likely to cause the child’s physical, mental, or emotional health to be significantly impaired.   

Neglect:  when a child is deprived of necessary food, clothing, shelter, or medical treatment or a child is permitted to live in an environment when such deprivation or environment causes the child’s physical, mental, or emotional health to be significantly impaired or to be in danger of being significantly impaired.  

Abandonment:  a situation in which the parent or caregiver responsible for the child’s welfare makes no significant contribution to the child’s care and maintenance.  This includes leaving a child without adult supervision or an arrangement appropriate for the child’s age or mental or physical condition so that the child is unable to care for the child’s own needs or another’s basic needs or is unable to exercise good judgment in responding to any kind of physical or emotional crisis.  

Juvenile sexual abuse:  (or child-on-child)  sexual behavior by a child toward another child which occurs without consent, without equality (lacking the same level of power in the relationship), or as a result of coercion, including making obscene phone calls, the showing or taking of lewd photographs, or varying degrees of direct sexual contact, such as fondling, digital penetration, rape, and various other sexually aggressive acts.