Reporting Child Abuse
Know the Signs
Know the Signs and learn what to do if a child discloses abuse to you. The Hawai’i State Chapter of Children’s Justice Centers offers guidelines for how and when to report child abuse and neglect.
Any person who believes that a child has been or may be abused and/or neglected can report their concerns to CWS or the local police department.
If you have any suspicion that a child may be a victim of abuse neglect or is at risk of abuse or neglect, please be pono – do the right thing and report.
To report suspected abuse or neglect in Maui County or any other neighbor island, please call the Child Abuse and Neglect reporting line 888-380-3088 (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week).
Mandated Reporters
The law requires certain individuals to report child abuse and/or neglect. These mandated reporters include doctors, nurses, people in other health-related professionals; employees or officers of schools; employees in social, medical, hospital, or mental health services, including financial assistance; employees or officers of any law enforcement agency; and individual providers or employees or officers of any child care facility. The police or child welfare services will walk you through the process on how to make a report.
To make sure you are prepared, please read:
For more detailed guidelines, please visit the Hawai’i Children’s Justice Center’s Mandated Reporter Information Page.
Kuleana: Our responsibility is to keep our children safe.
Supporting Families Beyond Reporting
While reporting abuse is a critical and sometimes necessary step, there are other ways for community members to support ʻohana and keiki. These strategies include: helping ʻohana identify their protective factors, linking them to community resources, creating new family engagement tools and using parent navigators to help develop these strategies. Building pilina (relationship, community) involves making a paradigm shift in the way ʻohana and providers relate to one another. Too often, ʻohana are reluctant to seek services for fear of being reported. It is our communities – which includes educators, neighbors, medical professionals, social workers and service providers – that have the kuleana (responsibility) and opportunity for connecting ʻohana to supports that will help prevent child abuse and neglect. To learn more, watch the video below.