Education professionals’ role in identifying and reporting child sexual abuse: Untangling the maze

In this chapter, we discuss the critical role of education professionals in identifying and reporting suspicions of child sexual abuse. Many such professionals have regular, even daily contact with children and access to personal and family information. Education professionals are on the frontline in child protection and carry a legally mandated and moral responsibility to ensure children are protected and further abuse is prevented. However, in Australia, there have been many high-profile failures to report abuse occurring in educational settings. This chapter reviews relevant research and grey literature, as well as reporting on our own research in the area. Our research entails a large-scale survey of Australian education professionals’ knowledge of child sexual abuse and experiences of reporting to child protection services. Through the synthesis of our own and existing data, we examine the main barriers faced by professionals in identifying and reporting suspicions of child sexual abuse, and why these barriers exist despite legal requirements of mandatory reporting. The barriers discussed include lack of education and support, uncertainty about reporting threshold requirements, disillusionment with statutory child protection systems, fear of disrupting relationships with children and families, and professional hierarchy. We discuss in detail the recommended methods to address these barriers to facilitate identifying and reporting child sexual abuse.