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Mandated Reporting

In almost every state, teachers and other school staff are required by law to report suspected child abuse or neglect. At SII, every staff member, contractor, and reviewer is treated as a mandated reporter, whatever the law of their own state says.

Draft for attorney review; effective when enrollment opens.

Who must report

Everyone who works for SII: teachers, advisors, counselors, Qur'an teachers, reviewers, office staff, administrators, and anyone at Ameen Systems who works on the school. The duty is personal. It cannot be handed to a colleague or to a manager.

When to report

Report whenever you have reasonable cause to suspect that a child is being abused or neglected. You do not need proof, and you do not need to be certain. It is the agency's job to investigate, not yours. Report as soon as you can, and always within the time the law of the child's state sets, which is often 24 hours or less.

Where to report

  • If a child is in immediate danger, call the child's local emergency dispatch number from the Emergency card, or 911 if you are in the same area as the child.
  • Report to the child protection agency in the state where the child lives. Each state's number is listed by the federal Child Welfare Information Gateway. The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline, 1-800-422-4453, helps anyone who is unsure where to call.
  • If the law of the state where you live or work also requires a report, follow that law too.

Telling SII does not replace your report to the state. An internal report to the Safeguarding Lead is required in addition to your report to the agency, never instead of it.

What to do, step by step

  1. Make sure the child is safe right now. Call for emergency help if needed.
  2. Report to the state agency where the child lives. Note the agency, the date and time, and any reference number.
  3. Raise a concern in our platform (or write to safeguarding@southernislamicinstitute.org) on the same day, including the agency report details.
  4. Write down what you saw or heard, in the child's own words where possible, with dates. Do not add your own interpretation.
  5. Do not investigate, question the child further, or contact the person suspected.
  6. Keep it confidential. Discuss it only with the Safeguarding Lead, the deputy, or the authorities.

Children outside the United States

For a family living abroad, call the local emergency services where the child is if there is immediate danger, report to the child protection agency of the family's home state in the United States, and tell the Safeguarding Lead, who will also advise on any local reporting route.

If a child tells you something

  • Stay calm, listen, and let the child speak in their own words.
  • Do not promise to keep it secret. Tell the child you will need to tell people whose job is to help keep them safe.
  • Reassure the child that telling was right, and that it is not their fault.
  • Do not ask leading questions or look for details. Then follow the steps above.

What the school does

  • The Safeguarding Lead records every concern, checks that the agency has been told, and reports it to the agency directly where the law requires or where the reporter could not.
  • A concern cannot be closed without a record of the agency report, unless a second person records why no report was needed.
  • If a staff member is the subject of a concern, they lose access to children at once while it is looked into.
  • While a concern is open, nothing about it appears in a family's view, email summary, notifications, or data download. The safeguarding team's own access to the child's record is never shown in the family's access log. Any other staff access during an open concern is held back from that log until the Safeguarding Lead releases it, when it is safe to show. Every opening of a child's Emergency card is held back the same way from the moment it happens, whether or not a concern is open yet.
  • If no one on the safeguarding team has acknowledged a concern within 4 hours, it goes to the deputy, or to our safeguarding mailbox when no deputy can receive it. Our software lets the school set a shorter time, never a longer one.
  • Safeguarding records are kept confidential, outside family data downloads, until the later of the child's 25th birthday and 7 years after the concern closes, or longer while a legal matter is open.

Concerns about leaders

A concern about the Principal, the Safeguarding Lead, a director, or any administrator goes to the independent safeguarding adviser as well as the state agency, and the person it concerns loses access at once, administrators included. Our software does not let anyone see a concern about themselves.

Training and protection for reporters

Every staff member completes mandated-reporter training before starting and every year after, including how reporting works in different states. Training records are kept, and lapsed training removes access to children. No one who reports a concern in good faith will be punished or disadvantaged for it, and retaliation against a reporter is a serious breach of our code of conduct.