Anyone looking out for the kids?

[emeraldkity4]

<p>

State law requires school personnel to report suspected abuse to police or Child Protective Services, but teachers kept their concerns in-house, hewing to a school policy that says go to an administrator. Once passed along, their complaints almost always died, with no investigation, no discipline, no calls to outside investigators.

</p>

<p>I already knew of numerous incidents regarding assault and abuse ( by students) that were handled ( or not) in house.</p>

<p>But is your personnel file dissolved every year?</p>

<p>

“Teachers who’d witnessed Hill’s troubling behavior struggled with what to do. And, due to principals’ lax documentation, their concerns weren’t pieced together to reveal Hill for what he was.” “A principal can document troubling incidents that don’t equate to child abuse. But under the current teachers’ contract, schools must destroy personnel files at the end of each year and start anew. Only records forwarded to the central office remain.”

[Education</a> | School’s culture failed to stop abuser | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2004456273_hill04m.html]Education”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2004456273_hill04m.html)</p>

<p>Professionals who come into contact with children are mandated reporters.That means report to the police not their boss.
I suspect the teachers know this.</p>

[NJ_mother]

<p>I never heard of another job in which personnel records are destroyed yearly.
What if you were the stellar teacher. Wouldn’t you want the track record to prove it if you moved to another area?</p>

<p>Teacher, nurses, pediatricians- I thought they were all bound by the same rule: report to authorities any suspected abuse.</p>

[gladmom]

<p>Very troubling situation. All of those who work with kids in our state know their mandated reporting responsibilities. Even I, as a substitute teacher, have to sign a form every year that spells this out in detail.</p>

<p>And it is very difficult to believe that teachers’ personnel files are destroyed every year. I never heard of such a thing.</p>

[emeraldkity4]

<p>Ive had a problem with student records as well.
I requested my daughters records from her school, while she was still attending, because although she had an IEP, it wasn’t being followed and I suspected information was being lost.
I cited all the forms that I wanted to see & they had hardly anything.
Very few forms had been sent to the district, those were held over- but the ones at the school had all been dumped.
The things that were in her file were meaningless.</p>