Allow us to share our story. As the parents of a special needs, mostly nonverbal child, our lives were upended when our daughter's middle school, unjustifiably reported us to Child Protective Services (CPS), instead of talking to us to better understand her. The thing is, you truly cannot understand this life, with a special needs child, unless you live it. This was the result of that. You can study special education and have an understanding of the field, but we're the professionals when it comes to our child. The same way doctors are medical professionals, but still ask, "mom, is this her baseline?" Because nobody knows her like we do.

  She's a special needs student, and still in diapers, due to severe developmental delays and medical complexities. Still, we were reported for things like dried poop in diaper (we change her before leaving the house, and they don't change her until 10am- how is that on us), diaper rash, and an accident (urine down leg). All at school. The case was unfounded and closed. One of the principals even apologized for their school team there. The fact that this is the special education team,  that works with special needs children, reporting these things, is unbelievable. I know she's the only one in their care in diapers at this time, but these are common issues that can happen with any diapered child, and also not unheard of with her daily clean outs, if one of them causes residuals. Rashes are well documented on her medical record, too, and they even have the medicated cream in their possession. A simple phone call to speak to us about this, could've cleared this up before going this far. We were told they report when it isn't the "norm," but if they spoke to us before making a report, they would have heard this is not unusual for her, and is HER "norm," at least. 

  Our experience is more common than you might think. Too many families like ours, tending to children with special needs, find themselves wrongfully accused, due to misunderstandings or misinterpretations of symptoms related to the children's medical conditions. This seems starkly unfair and needs to be addressed promptly, to protect families with special needs children from such undue stress and blame.

  In 2018, an article in The Guardian described the phenomenon, characterizing the situation as a "disproportionate number of cases where families with special needs children face misunderstanding and blame."

  We need your support to urge legislators to lay down clear guidelines to prevent such distressing incidents. I am for reporting with good reason, to try and help others. I'm a mandated reporter, myself. I just feel there is room for some change. In speaking with other mandated reporters, maybe something as simple as continuing education classes would help. Know the signs to look for, but also, knowing things to consider, before reporting. Leaving room for considerations with situations like ours, and others similar. Situations where there's a trail of applicable medical history and records, or knowledge of atypical behavior and development, and the kiddo has different needs. No family should live in fear of being wrongly accused due to conditions beyond their control. They should feel supported, not continuously scrutinized. Sign this petition to call for these necessary reforms and protect special needs families.