Moving Upstream: Preparing Child Welfare Students for the Future of Mandated Reporting

What if the best way to protect children in need isn't reporting more families to child protective services, but supporting them before a crisis occurs?

When students commit to the California Title IV-E Education Program, they get access to much more than just a stipend. They join a passionate community of instructors, subject matter experts and practitioners committed to strengthening child welfare education across the state. By aligning classroom learning with the latest developments in policy and practice, these dedicated educators help to ensure that the next generation of child welfare professionals is prepared to make real change in their communities.

Among those leading the charge are Elizabeth Pringle-Hornsby, Ed.D. and Tory Cox, Ed.D., LCSW, PPSC. As Title IV-E project coordinators and lecturers in the School of Social Work at CSU Long Beach (CSULB), Pringle-Hornsby and Cox spend their days working with aspiring child welfare workers and developing innovative ways of bridging the gap between instruction and practice.

Earlier this year, Cox and Pringle-Hornsby came together to run Moving Upstream: From Mandated Reporting to Community Supporting, a one-day symposium that gave Title IV-E students at CSULB an inside look at the origins and implications of Assembly Bill 2085, a new policy framework that significantly reshapes California’s mandated reporting system.

Confronting Disparities:

Prior to the adoption of AB 2085 in 2022, California state law required several different professional classifications, including teachers, law enforcement officers and mental health workers, to act as mandated reporters. As the name suggests, mandated reporters are legally required to report any suspected instance of child abuse or neglect to an appropriate child and family services agency for further investigation.

Though well-intentioned, this system had serious shortcomings for families and workers alike. Each year, it led to some 400,000 reports being filed with child protective service agencies statewide, only about one in ten of which ended up being substantiated.

Beyond putting a significant strain on CPS investigators and agency resources, this massive influx of reports drew thousands of families into the child welfare system. “Even when a report isn’t actionable, the system records that a family was reported on,” says Cox. “That report can become an albatross around a family’s neck and lead to traumatic interactions with the child welfare system in the future.”

About half of all reports, moreover, were made on the basis of suspected general neglect. Over the years, however, it became apparent that what many reporters took as evidence of neglect–a child arriving at school without a jacket, for instance–were in fact signs of poverty. As a result, the overapplication of general neglect became a powerful driver of racial disproportionality in the California child welfare system, since children of color are more likely than their white peers to experience economic disadvantage.

From Mandated Reporting to Community Supporting: 

AB 2085 mitigates these issues through two key reforms. First, it narrows the legal definition of general neglect such that it excludes parental economic disadvantage. And second, centering proactive support for families ahead of reactive reporting, it emphasizes collaborative decision-making, engagement with lived experts, and new forms of training that leave reporters better prepared to connect families with appropriate resources.

Together with county-level Community Supporting initiatives, the creation of innovative Community Pathways for family support, and the federal Family First Prevention Services Act, this framework represents the start of a new relationship between California families and the agencies and professionals that serve them.

The shift from mandated reporting to community-supporting practice is the future of child welfare in our state...We want our students to play a leading role in creating that future, helping to transform practice in ways that address some of the most troubling disparities in the child welfare system.

Elizabeth Pringle-Hornsby, Ed.D.

But getting these reforms on the books is only half the battle. “Training and education is where the rubber hits the road when it comes to compliance,” says Cox. “To bring child welfare practice into alignment with these reforms, we need to help aspiring professionals understand both the letter of the law and the spirit of collaboration at the heart of this new framework.”

“The shift from mandated reporting to community-supporting practice is the future of child welfare in our state,” adds Pringle-Hornsby. “We want our students to play a leading role in creating that future, helping to transform practice in ways that address some of the most troubling disparities in the child welfare system.”

Moving Upstream for Brighter Futures: 

Featuring presentations from more than a dozen experts, Moving Upstream gave CSULB Title IV-E students a chance to hear from those at the forefront of the movement to reform mandated reporting. The day began, for instance, with a keynote from Tamara Hunter, D.S.W., who leads the Mandated Supporting Initiative for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

A Title IV-E alumnus, Hunter’s research has shown how mandated reporting has historically served to pit “the best interests of mandated reporters and organizations against the best interests of the families we serve.” For Hunter, the shift to community support promises a brighter future for practitioners and clients alike by controlling for structural biases and emphasizing decision-making processes that center the needs and goals of families. 

Says Pringle-Hornsby, “We wanted to create an environment where our students could learn directly from practitioners, subject matter experts and those with lived experiences of the mandated reporting system.”

We’re preparing our students to lead, not just react. That’s how we create a workforce that drives change for children and families.

Tory Cox, Ed.D., LCSW, PPSC

Moving Upstream is just one example of how Title IV-E is helping to drive change in California’s child welfare system. More than just a stipend program, it gives dedicated social work students an opportunity to learn at the leading edge of child welfare practice and play a central role in transforming the system for the better.

Says Cox, “We’re preparing our students to lead, not just react. That’s how we create a workforce that drives change for children and families.”