A Community Supporting Approach to Mandated Reporting: Training Updates and Insights on State Reform Efforts

Session Description:  This webinar is designed to present a brief overview of efforts to reform mandated reporting in California and provide an updated approach to fulfilling responsibilities of a mandated reporter. Currently, there is significant overreporting of child abuse and neglect, and mandated reporting disproportionately harms BIPOC children and families, requiring an understanding of negative racial bias in reporting and a new approach to better support children and families. This session will focus on new strategies for approaching mandated reporting, particularly with respect to neglect.

Presenters: Safe and Sound

• Jenny Pearlman (she/her), Chief Policy Officer 
• Clarence Say (he/him), Associate Director of Community Education & Partnerships
• Brianna Green (she/her), Senior Program Manager of Community Education

 Presenter Emails: clarence.say@safeandsound.org; jenny.pearlman@safeandsound.org; brianna.green@safeandsound.org    
 
Presenter Bios:  

Chief Policy Officer, Jenny Pearlman, JD, has over 30 years of nonprofit and legal experience. She is currently the Chief Policy Officer for Safe & Sound where she spearheaded a new department to focus on local, state and federal advocacy and research to improve outcomes for all children and families. Before joining Safe & Sound, Ms. Pearlman consulted with a variety of nonprofits on communication and strategy issues and worked for several years as a lawyer and education advocate with the public interest law firm, Public Advocates. She also practiced general civil litigation with the two New York law firms, Kaye, Scholer, Hayes & Handler and Lankler, Siffert & Wohl, LLP.  Early in her career, Ms. Pearlman taught high school students and trained teachers in Namibia and South Africa. She is a graduate of Georgetown University (BS Foreign Service) and Georgetown University Law School, cum laude. An active member of the community, Ms. Pearlman has served on the board of several education-related nonprofit organizations. Ms. Pearlman spends as much time as she can outdoors and continues to seek adventures of all kinds with her four children.

Clarence Say, MAT is an accomplished Asian American educator with over a decade of experience spanning direct classroom instruction, curriculum development, community outreach, training, and nonprofit management. His teaching career has taken him from American schools to international classrooms in Thailand with the Peace Corps and in China, enriching his understanding of diverse educational practices and reinforcing his commitment to fostering inclusive learning environments. Clarence joined Safe & Sound in July of 2024, where he leads the Community Education & Partnerships team in building meaningful partnerships that enhance community education and support lifelong learning. In addition to his professional endeavors, he is currently a doctoral candidate, focusing his research on perspectives on multicultural children’s literature. Clarence's extensive experience and dedication to education make him a vital asset to the Safe & Sound community and a passionate advocate for educational equity, access, and the vision of a future free from child abuse, neglect, and trauma.

Brianna Green, MPA is the Senior Program Manager of Community Education at Safe and Sound. In her current role, she manages the Child Safety Awareness and Keeping Kids Safe Programs, and Mandated Reporter Training. She also assists with curriculum development and scheduling.  In her earlier days at Safe & Sound, she spent most of her workday teaching elementary age students how to keep themselves safe, focusing on sexual abuse prevention. Prior to working at Safe and Sound Brianna was a Program Director at the YMCA of San Francisco. She oversaw Afterschool programs and summer enrichment programs. Brianna has made lasting relationships with the families that she worked with while at the YMCA. 
 

Learning Objectives: After completing this session, participants will be able to:

• LO1: Examine the historical and systemic factors, including structural racism, that contribute to disparities in mandated reporting outcomes for BIPOC children and families.
• LO2: Analyze California-specific data on child abuse and neglect reporting, focusing on disproportionality, overreporting, and their impact on children and families.
• LO3: Identify the role of implicit and explicit bias in decision-making processes and apply strategies to mitigate their influence when fulfilling mandated reporting responsibilities.
• LO4: Recognize signs of abuse and neglect, understand "reasonable suspicion", and utilize decision-making tools to guide reporting decisions.
• LO5: Explore recent legislative reforms in California, including AB 2085, aimed at redefining neglect and reducing poverty-based reporting, as well as their implications for supporting families.
• LO6: Summarize the mandated reporting process, reporting procedures, decision-making tools, what happens after a report is made, and strategies for supporting families.

3-5 RECENT (within 5 years) references (i.e. journal articles, books) that inform the presentation 

• Ports, K. A., Rostad, W., Scardaville, M., Troy, A., Harmon, W. C., & Claps, M. (2024). Reimagining Child Welfare: Paradigms that Support a System of Child and Family Well-Being. Child Welfare, 101(6), 21-40.
• Dygert, M., Mapa, K., & Berrick, J. D. (2023). Opportunity Ahead: Reimagining the Role of Child Support Engagement for Child Welfare–Involved Families. Policy & Practice, 81(2), 6–49.
•  Wulczyn, F. (2020). Foster care in a life course perspective. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 692(1), 227–252 

Accessibility statement: SF State Department of Counseling’s Equity and Justice – Focused Counselor Training project welcomes persons with disabilities and will provide reasonable accommodations (including ASL interpretation) upon request. If you need reasonable accommodations for this event, please make your request by contacting Julie Chronister jchronis@sfsu.edu by Friday 4/18/2025.

Closed captioning and Spanish language translation will be available during the webinar. Habrá subtítulos e interpretación en español disponibles durante el seminario web.
 

Continuing Education Information 
Real-time attendance at this webinar has been approved for 1.75 hours of continuing education credit via our partnership with Counseling and Psychological Services at the University of California at Berkeley who is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. This  course  has  been  approved  for  1.75   hours of continuing education  credit for LMFT, LPCC and /or LCSW as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. Counseling and Psychological Services, University of California at Berkeley maintains responsibility for the program and its content. Please direct concerns about this course or its content to Stephanie Takeuchi stephanie.takeuchi@berkeley.edu

There is no cost to attend this webinar. Participants desiring CEU credit for attending this webinar will be directed to sign in at the start of the webinar and will be required to provide an evaluation of the session directly following the webinar and verify their participation and attendance. CEU certificates will be emailed to participants who successfully complete both the sign in and evaluation process. If you have trouble with accessing the sign in or evaluation, you can contact Tiffany O’Shaughnessy taosh@sfsu.edu 
 
DOE Disclaimer: This projects is supported by the Department of Education (DOE) as part of an award totaling $5,667,660. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS, DOE, RSA, or the U.S. Government.