Duty to Report

• The CFSA recognizes that every citizen has a responsibility for the welfare of children.  It states clearly that members of the public, report forthwith, to a Children's Aid Society (CAS) if they have ** "reasonable grounds" to suspect that a child is or may be in need of protection.  Where a child is suspected to be in need of protection, professionals who work with children, must report even if it involves confidential information.  In regards to confidentiality, the CFSA supercedes all other common laws or statutory privileges (except for the solicitor-client relationship).

• For purposes of child protection under the CFSA, a child is a person who is under sixteen years of age.  Youth who are sixteen years of age or older but under age eighteen are included only if they are currently the subject of an order under Part 3 of the CFSA (a ward or under a Supervision Order).

• The person who has the reasonable grounds to suspect that a child is or may be in need of protection must make the report directly to a Children's Aid Society and not rely on anyone else to report on his or her behalf.  This allows the Protection worker to gather pertinent details of the allegations from the first hand observer and prevent any unnecessary delay on the commencement of the investigation. There is also an ongoing obligation to report.  If a person has made a previous report about a child, and has additional reasonable grounds to suspect that a child is or may be in need of protection, that person must make a further report to a Children's Aid Society.  This ensures that critical information subsequent to the initial referral is not overlooked in any decisions made in relation to the safety and well being of the child.  It is often assumed that CAS is aware of this secondary information by virtue of their involvement with the family.  Results of several inquests into the deaths of children reveals that this is not always the case.

• Protection from liability (Section 72-7) is built into the CFSA for those person's who make a report unless he or she acted maliciously or without reasonable grounds for his or her suspicion.  It should be noted that, if a professional fails in their duty to report, a civil suit could be launched by the victim at some point in the future if subsequent abuse or neglect arises as a result of the failure to report.

• Under Section 72(4) of the CFSA, any professional or official who fails to report a suspicion that a child is or may be in need of protection, where the information on which that suspicion is based was obtained in the course of his or her professional or official duties, is liable on conviction to a fine of up to $1,000.00.
  

• It is not the role of any professional, other than the Police and the CAS worker, to conduct the investigation.  As soon as a professional has reasonable and probable grounds to believe that a child may be in need of protection, there are adequate grounds to refer to the CAS.  Additional probing or questioning of the child will only serve to compromise the ensuing investigative process.