AFT Is Trying to Get Educators to Be 'Mandatory Supporters' Instead of Mandatory Reporters — No

educators are mandatory reporters when it comes to child welfare issues i was really perplexed then to see aft america's second largest teachers union the american federation of teachers come out with this framework for being mandatory supporters now a couple problems with First of all, a lot of the types of support they're talking about are things that we have absolutely no ability to provide.

We can do the school stuff, but a lot of what families need is well beyond our ability to know about or help with.

This is not our profession.

Teams of professionals are needed.

And what I think is happening here from AFT is they're trying to discourage educators from making mandated reports, right?

Like we have these laws all over the country.

I think just about every state has mandatory reporter laws that say if you are an educator and you are aware of a child welfare issue, you need to report it.

Don't just tell your boss.

Don't tell your principal.

You actually have to report it yourself to a hotline.

And there's a hotline like in every state you can call to report something.

uh suspected child welfare issues and you and you need to you have an ethical obligation and it is the law that was one of the first trainings i had to go to when i became a teacher i moved across the country got my certification in washington state and one of the things i had to take specifically to certify in washington even though i already had my certification elsewhere was to learn about the mandatory reporter laws.

And it's very troubling to me that AFT is now trying to undermine those laws and undermine the intent of those laws, which is to protect kids.

And we have to, like, anytime we're dealing with something icky, like, it is deeply unpleasant to have to report an issue like this, to have to report a family knowing that they might be investigated.

You know, and we don't really know what happens in these reports.

You know, that's handled by the Child Welfare Agency, and it's not necessarily our business.

But we are obligated to make that report and we know it feels terrible.

But you know what is more terrible than that feeling that we get from having to make a report?

You know what is worse than a family getting investigated?

Is whatever is going on that caused us to need to make the report in the first place.

We have to remember that.

Underlying every uncomfortable thing that we have to do as educators is a far, far uglier reality that may be putting that child at risk every single day.

So I want you to read this article.

Go ahead and read what they're saying here.

This is one of the most intellectually dishonest pieces that I have read in a long time.

because they're trying to not say to do anything illegal.

They're not saying to not fulfill your obligations as a mandatory reporter, but they're trying to make you feel guilty about it.

And that seems especially gross to me because we already feel guilty about this.

We already really struggle when it comes to making those mandatory reports about child welfare.

We hate doing this.

We hate putting families in that situation.

But we know we have that obligation because students' lives are at stake, right?

This is the most high stakes thing we ever deal with in education.

This is talking about the immediate health and safety and welfare of our students.

And I think we need to not play around with that.

And when people are throwing around this type of rhetoric that you see in this article, like read this for yourself.

I think we've got to push back real hard on that and say, no, we are going to do what we can to support our kids, sure.

But let's be crystal clear.

We are still mandatory reporters and we absolutely need to be.

We need to fulfill that obligation to our students.

Let me know what you think.