Do Mandated Reporters Think that CPS Protects Children and Help Families?
By Kathryn S. Krase, PhD JD MSW
A project of Krase Consulting
Part 3 in a series
Introduction to Our Research
Mandated reporters are people required to make reports to child protective services (CPS) in their given state. We read and hear a lot about what mandated reporters are supposed to do and when. What we read and hear about far less is what mandated reporters actually think about the policy of mandated reporting, the system that reports are made into, and how the role of mandated reporter actually impacts the reporter, personally and professionally.
Interest in learning more about the experiences of mandated reporters was the starting point for a study I conducted with three colleagues — Dr. Latoya Attis, Dr. Emily Murphy, and Michelle Desir, LCSW. We surveyed nearly 400 mandated reporters across the country: mental health professionals, medical providers, educators, social service workers, child welfare staff, and more. The findings related to the opinions of mandated reporters was the subject of our first research article currently under peer review with Children and Youth Services Review.
The two lowest scores in the study
Of the six opinion statements we measured in our research, these two came in dead last:
50.3% agreed or strongly agreed that CPS protects children (35.3% disagreed)
41.6% agreed or strongly agreed that CPS helps families (36.3% disagreed)
"CPS helps families" was, out of everything we asked, the statement mandated reporters were least likely to endorse. Fewer than half of the professionals legally required to report to this system believe it actually helps the people it's reporting on.
One belief, not two
Here's the finding that anchors this whole post: agreement with "CPS protects children" and agreement with "CPS helps families" were the two most tightly correlated opinions in the entire study (r = .751). Statistically, that's about as close as two supposedly separate survey items get to measuring the same thing. If a reporter believes CPS protects children, they almost certainly also believe CPS helps families — and vice versa. Practically speaking, we're not looking at two beliefs here. We're looking at one belief — confidence that the system works — expressed through two slightly different questions.
That matters for how you read the rest of this post, and honestly for how you read the rest of this series: whatever predicts one of these items tends to predict the other, for the same underlying reason.
Who's more confident, who's less
A few patterns showed up on both items:
Medical professionals were more confident than other reporters that CPS protects children and helps families.
Mental health professionals were less confident on both — a pattern that held up even before accounting for anything else about them, and one that gets its own dedicated post later in this series, because it turned out to be one of the most consistent findings in the whole study.
Reporters motivated by legal obligation were less confident in CPS's protective and helping capacity; reporters motivated by concern for the child were more confident in both.
Reporters who correctly understood the real substantiation rate — that most CPS reports are not substantiated after investigation — and who knew about racial disparities in CPS reporting were less confident in CPS as a system. Same pattern we saw with policy support in Post 2, and the subject of its own deep dive in an upcoming post.
What survives once everything else is controlled for
Once we accounted for demographics, professional role, system knowledge, and reporting history all together through multivariate analysis, one factor rose to the top for both items: satisfaction with mandated reporter training. It was the strongest predictor of believing CPS protects children, and it was the single strongest predictor in the entire study of believing CPS helps families — stronger than any other variable we measured, for any outcome.
Knowledge of the real substantiation rate remained independently significant for both beliefs even after training satisfaction and everything else was accounted for. And the mental health professional pattern held too — being an MHP independently predicted less confidence in both CPS's protective and helping functions, even controlling for training, knowledge, role, and experience simultaneously.
Why this is the harder question
It's one thing to believe a policy is well-intentioned. It's another to believe the system executing that policy actually delivers on it. Our respondents draw that distinction clearly: 65.3% will say the policy is good, but only 41.6% will say the system it created actually helps the families it touches. That 24-point gap is, in a sense, the whole tension of this study in miniature — obligation to a policy, doubt about its results.
Confidence that the system works is only half of what shapes a mandated reporter's experience of the job, though. The other half is what the job costs them personally and professionally — and that's a very different set of predictors, starting with the strain reporting can put on a professional relationship. That's next.
This research is co-authored with Dr. Latoya Attis (Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University), Dr. Emily Murphy (School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Mercy University), and Michelle Desir, LCSW (Silbermann School of Social Work, Hunter College). A preprint of our research study is available on SSRN; the paper is currently under peer review at Children and Youth Services Review, and findings discussed in this series should be considered preliminary until publication.his research was supported by Children's Rights, Inc.
If this research resonates with you, consider learning more about the New York Mandated Reporting Working Group — a coalition of advocates, professionals, and impacted individuals — working towards a trust-based approach to service to children and families that better supports families and strengthens their stability and well-being. Learn more at https://www.nymrwg.org/
Cite this blog:
Krase, K. (2026, November 4). Do Mandated Reporters Think that CPS Protects Children and Help Families. Krase Consulting. https://www.makingthetoughcall.info/post/do-mandated-reporters-think-that-cps-protects-children-and-help-families
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