An Assessment of the Level of Awareness of Utah Public School Special Educators Concerning the State\u27s Child Abuse Reporting Laws and Procedures

An assessment was made to determine the level of awareness among Utah public school special educators concerning the state\u27s child abuse reporting laws and procedures. The assessment was made with a questionnaire developed by the author and mailed to those teachers involved with programs for the learning disabled, the emotionally disturbed, and the trainable and educable mentally retarded. Accompanying each questionnaire was a letter of transmittal and a self-addressed, stamped, return envelope. Two mailings were utilized, fourteen days apart, to achieve a useable 81.9% return. The data collected showed the following: (1) More than half of the population knew only one of nine salient and important points of Utah\u27s child abuse statutes, and for that one question only 57.2% knew the correct answer. (2) Slightly more than half of the population claimed to have ever been exposed to the subject of child abuse. (3) About 2/3 of the population claimed to have suspected cases of child abuse. (4) About 1/4 of the population claimed to have reported cases of child abuse