“When in doubt, make a report,” says Haven. “If you’re not sure, or you don’t have a lot of details, but you do have that gut feeling that something just isn’t right—make that report.
The key thing you’re looking for is a reasonable cause to suspect. Would a reasonable person suspect that what they are seeing or hearing could be child abuse?” Haven goes on to clarify: “It’s very important that mandated reporters NOT try to do the investigation to determine if abuse is happening or not. They should NOT be asking questions past the point of having a reasonable cause to suspect.
Sometimes, you don’t have enough information for a reasonable suspicion. For example, if the child says ‘I’m scared, I don’t want to go home,’ you’d absolutely need to ask a few questions. Maybe they got in trouble with their parents and don’t want to be grounded. Maybe they watched a scary movie and think their room is haunted. OR it could be abuse. A mandated reporter can, and should, ask questions until they have a reasonable suspicion of abuse. But if you press beyond that, you run the risk of tainting the child’s memory.
You don’t have to know for sure that abuse is happening. You just have to have a suspicion. Don’t overthink it. Make that report.”