Community Partnership of the Ozarks says it has launched an online tool to help educate those responsible for reporting child abuse and neglect.
CPO says the organization and its partners have been working to reduce the number of cases of child abuse through in part the Mandated Reporter Training program. It educates individuals who have the care, custody or control of a child about what to look for and how and when to report potential child abuse and neglect. But the three-hour training is only provided in-person on quarterly dates throughout the year.
Now, an online mandated reporter training is accessible 24 hours a day and can be completed at a person’s leisure.
The organization says there were over 4,600 calls to the child abuse and neglect hotline from Greene County alone in FY 2014, citing the latest report from the Missouri Children’s Division.
CPO says while the online course is not designed to replace the in-person training, it does comprehensively cover the same information in a series of videos and question modules. Once an individual has successfully completed the course, they will be able to print a unique certificate showing the completion of 2 clock hours in the course.
According to a news release, Messiah Lutheran Church provided funding for the creation of the program, and Community Partnership’s staff worked alongside its three mandated reporter partners to film the training videos and develop the curriculum.
The website is www.momandatedreporter.org.