Maryland Family Law Annotated Code § 5-704 establishes the guidelines for mandated reporting of abuse or neglect for health practitioners, police officers, educators, or human service workers in Maryland.[1] In January 2021, a group of Maryland lawmakers and experts plan to provide the Maryland Legislature with new recommendations regarding the shortfalls of mandated reporting amid the pandemic.[2] Maryland Child Protective Services has reported a 70% drop of mandated reporting in April 2020 as compared to April 2019.[3] In March 2020, during the progressive shutdown of businesses and government services due to COVID -19, calls reporting abuse dropped from 490 in the first week of the month to only 136 in the last week.[4] The decline in calls is extremely worrisome, as other evidence has indicated a steady increase in instances of child abuse during the pandemic despite low rates of reporting.[5]

Along with business and governmental closures, COVID-19 has also brought about the indefinite suspension of in-person education for the majority of Maryland public school systems.[6] According to Adam Rosenberg, the director of the Baltimore Child Abuse Center, nearly twenty (20) percent of all child abuse reports are reported through interactions that take place at school.[7] Children have lost a source of reprieve and can often feel isolated and helpless due to the suspension of in person classes, decreasing the likelihood that abuse will be reported.[8] At-risk children’s familial support systems are undergoing extreme amounts of stress and anxiety due to high unemployment rates and the unprecedented nature of the pandemic.[9] Many resources previously available to families, were taken away leaving families without any reprieve, often causing them to revert back to aggressive behaviors and a lack of patience and parenting skills.[10] Access to the appropriate resources is crucial to assisting vulnerable families, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Maryland Legislature must reexamine their mandated reporting policies in order to better serve and protect their vulnerable population.

Maryland lawmakers and experts are developing a plan for adapting mandated reporting guidelines during the COVID –19 pandemic. Although the state did not cease in-person home visits to investigate reports of abuse and neglect amid the pandemic, the possibility of virtual evidence- gathering based  home visits increases the opportunity for social workers to connect with vulnerable families. The implementation of virtual home visits may also provide the Maryland Legislature an opportunity to designate funding to assist vulnerable families with securing the requisite technology to conduct the virtual visits. This may also allow the families to utilize the same technological resources to support the children’s virtual learning and/or support remote working opportunities for the caregivers. Maryland lawmakers and experts have developed many possible innovations to Maryland’s legislation on mandated reporting, but it is now up to the Maryland Legislature to prioritize the well-being of the vulnerable children.

Neha Khan is a 2L at the University of Baltimore School of Law. She graduated from the University of Maryland College Park with a B.S. in Family Science. This past summer she interned at JM Blattner, LLC, a family law firm in Towson, Maryland where she is now working full-time as a law clerk. Currently, she is serving as a representative for the Family Law Association (FLA) and the Women’s Bar Association (WBA) and she is a member of the Asian Pacific American Law Student’s Association (APALSA) at UB. She also currently serves as a Student Ambassador for the law school’s Office of Admissions, a staff editor for the UB Law Forum, a research assistant, and a UB LEADS Mentor for the incoming 1L class.

[1] Md. Code Ann., Fam. Law § 5-704.

[2] Dominique M. Bonessi, Maryland Lawmakers Seek To Improve Mandated Reporting of Abuse While Children Are At Home, WAMU 88.5 | American Univ. Radio (May 11, 2020), https://wamu.org/story/20/05/11/maryland-lawmakers-seek-to-improve-mandated-abuse-reporting-while-children-are-at-home/.

[3] Alison Knezevich and Yvonne Wenger, Reports of child abuse have fallen in Maryland since coronavirus shutdown, but experts say harm may be hidden, Balt. Sun (Apr. 25, 2020), https://www.baltimoresun.com/coronavirus/bs-md-child-abuse-coronavirus-20200425-m7o5quse7jexfpg3vjwax6ooxq-story.html.

[4] Id.

[5] Bonessi, supra note 2.

[6] Deepa Joshi and Joshua Sharfstein, How to protect against child abuse during COVID-19 pandemic | COMMENTARY, Balt. Sun (May 5, 2020), https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/op-ed/bs-ed-op-0506-child-abuse-coronavirus-20200505-o4d6q76pprfjtdb2y6ef3igz2a-story.html.

[7] Knezevich, supra note 3.

[8] Joshi, supra note 6.

[9] Id.

[10] Id.