States find a downside to mandatory reporting laws meant to protect children

There's a long, depressing history based on the approach that our primary response to a struggling family is reporting. There's now a wealth of evidence that demonstrates that more reporting is not associated with better outcomes for children.

Stephanie Villafuerte, Colorado's child protection ombudsman, oversees a task force to reexamine the state's mandatory reporting laws. She says the group is seeking to balance a need to report legitimate cases of abuse and neglect with a desire to weed out inappropriate reports.

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