After brief history of development of mandatory reporting laws to protect children from maltreatment and evaluation of assumptions underlying use of these laws for case finding, analyzes costs and benefits of reporting laws for four stakeholders (state, professionals, families, and children) and concludes that costs of laws outweigh benefits.…

Taking children away from their parents is risky business. Child protective services (CPS) workers are charged with monumental tasks and ever-increasing caseloads. As a countywide CPS supervisor in New Mexico, the author shared the pain of one caseworker who experienced daily stress, knowing that her sibling set of three young children had been…

Discusses the problems of children with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Questions whether society is prepared to respond to these children's needs. Asserts that the definitions of child abuse and neglect need to include the transmission of AIDS and that the foster care system will probably not be able to meet the needs of this…

The Supreme Court has ruled that certain professionals have immunity from civil rights lawsuits, but has not considered any cases involving social workers. A split view regarding the extent of social workers' immunity in investigating child abuse cases has appeared in two courts of appeals. Discusses immunity, the case in these two circuits, and…