In November 2019, Governor Roy Cooper signed North Carolina Senate Bill 199 – the SAFE Child Act – a bill to modernize sexual abuse laws as well as strengthen enforcement and protection for children who have been abused, into law. The new law will close loopholes in existing sexual assault laws and strengthen penalties against child abusers.
The new Senate Bill 199 has two provisions that directly impact school districts:
- A new requirement, effective December 1, 2019, that adults report potential violent or sexual offenses against child victims to law enforcement.
- A requirement that by January 1, 2020, LEAs adopt a child sexual abuse and sex trafficking training program for school personnel who work directly with students, with implementation of the training in the 2020-2021 school year.
North Carolina Senate Bill 199 Training Requirements
- Adopt and implement a training program for school personnel who work directly with students in grades K-12.
- Provide education and awareness training related to child sexual abuse and sex trafficking.
- All school personnel who work with students in grades K-12 shall receive 2 hours of training in even-numbered years beginning in 2020.
How SafeSchools Training Can Help
SafeSchools Training extensive course library provides expert-authored online training specifically designed for schools, including:
- Child Abuse: Identification & Intervention (33 minutes)
- Child Abuse: Mandatory Reporting – NC Specific (29 minutes)
- Human Trafficking Awareness (1 hour)
Our Child Sexual Abuse Prevention in Schools Course Library provides twenty-two microlearning courses, specifically designed for K-12 schools, covering key topics that staff need to be trained on in order to be aware of the behaviors that child abusers use to groom their victims.
Written by child sexual abuse prevention consultant Diane Cranley, this microlearning course series is designed to rovide training to everyone, including educators, paraeducators, bus drivers, and more, in one online system. This efficient and affordable training program can help you:
- Prepare school staff to interrupt an attempt at child sexual abuse before it happens.
- Provide a healthy deterrent effect.
- Save students from the lifelong emotional damage of sexual abuse.
- Reduce liability and prevent costly claims, which divert needed funds from educating students.
If you would like to learn more about our courses or solutions, please contact us at 1-800-434-0154 or request a demo.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than six million children are reported as abused or neglected each year. April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month so this month is a good time to make sure you’re familiar with your duties in regards to preventing and reporting child abuse.
To help remove barriers that affect students’ readiness to learn, school personnel must be able to recognize when children are being abused and quickly intervene on their behalf.
Child abuse can be more than just bruises and broken bones. Child maltreatment includes physical abuse, neglect, sexual abuse and exploitation, emotional abuse, threat of harm, and abuse of children with disabilities. While physical abuse may be easier to detect, emotional abuse and neglect leave deep, lasting, invisible scars. Research shows that maltreatment can cause:
- Neurological damage.
- Low self concept.
- Depression.
- Anxiety.
- School adjustment problems.
- Poor academic outcomes.
While each state has their own laws and regulations as to reporting incidents of child abuse, in nearly all states all school employees are considered mandatory reporters. This means that if any school staff member has reasonable cause to believe a child is being abused, they must report suspected incidents to one or more of the following: local law enforcement, child protection services, and building or district administrators. In order to protect the child, state statutes require school employees to report when they “have reason to suspect,” “have observed,” or “know or have a reasonable cause to believe” that a child is abused or neglected. It’s important for you, as a school staff member, to know which standard your state applies to you so that you can properly protect children from abuse.
The SafeSchools Online Staff Training System offers a Child Abuse: Identification & Intervention course and a Child Abuse: Mandatory Reporting course. We also offer state-specific versions of our Child Abuse: Mandatory Reporting course for Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.
For more information on these courses, please contact us at 1-800-434-0154 or [email protected].
