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Preventing Child Abuse All Year

With the arrival of the month of May, we want to maintain the energy and continue to raise awareness from April’s Child Abuse Prevention Month. We want to acknowledge all of you who took part in the observance and made the effort to learn more about keeping kids safer in our schools and communities. Protecting children from physical, emotional and sexual abuse requires our diligence beyond one month each year. It takes making a difference every day.

We appreciate the partnership of educators and educational organizations throughout California in support of child abuse prevention and training, especially the California School Boards Association (CSBA) and the member districts of the ReLiEF joint powers authorities.

In April, we highlighted important resources to publicize and educate everyone about the problem of child abuse and how to recognize the danger signs. Throughout the year, we will continue to make these resources available to schools, including our Micro Learning Series of videos on maintaining appropriate boundaries and identifying behaviors of adults and students indicating possible exploitation. These short videos focus on specific adult-to-student and student-to-student interactions that provide greater awareness for all staff and keep the warning flags to watch for top of mind.

Of course, the keystone training courses through the Keenan SafeSchools online platform continue to deliver mandated and supplemental team training for mandated reporter and related abuse prevention subjects. California school district staff have completed more than 2.4 million courses through Keenan SafeSchools as an efficient and cost-effective solution for meeting the state mandated training requirements.

Our web site includes regular updates to our Abuse Prevention Resources Page with resources to make your district safer for students and staff, offer ongoing publicity and visibility of the issue in all your facilities about the issue, and help you create a comprehensive plan for preventing and responding to child abuse. Child abuse and molestation claims have grown to become the most significant liability concern for school districts in California and nationally.

During April’s Child Abuse Prevention Month, participants were offered a challenge to learn more about the topic and find out what resources are available to them. The district that completed the most tiles in the awareness campaign will be awarded a $2,500 educational grant. Districts throughout the state took the challenge, and we are pleased to announce that Beaumont Unified School District was the winning participant of the grant. Menifee Union School District and the Santa Cruz County Office of Education are also recognized for their outstanding participation in the challenge. Everyone who took part to increase their understanding toward eliminating child abuse in our schools made an important difference. Thank you for joining with us in support of protecting children. Let’s keep the good work going each and every day of the year!