A Partnership-Directed School-Based Intervention for Child Physical Abuse and Neglect: Beyond Mandatory Reporting

Professionals in the schools are the major source of child maltreatment reports nationally. However, a review of the literature indicates that these professionals contribute only a small amount of school-based research data to our understanding of the consequences of child physical abuse and neglect or the treatment of child victims. A strategic multi-systems approach for designing school-based intervention research for vulnerable preschool child victims is presented. The approach involves establishing research collaborations with parents, educators, and child protective service agencies. Descriptions of the multi-level intervention strategy, which includes school district, school, and classroom levels, are provided to illustrate this approach. Public policy implications of school involvement in child maltreatment intervention are discussed.