School Bullying And New South Wales Teachers' Duties To Report Child Abuse Under Mandatory Reporting Legislation: A Reply To Healey

Abstract

A recent article advanced the argument that New South Wales mandatory reporting legislation requiring teachers to report suspected child abuse operates to require harm caused to children by school bullying to be reported by teachers to government child protection agencies. The article raises important issues concerning the nature and scope of mandatory reporting legislation in New South Wales and throughout Australia. In this article, we explore the argument's strengths and weaknesses. We conclude that, due to the nature and context of mandatory reporting laws, the nature of child protection systems, the differences between abuse perpetrated by parents or caregivers as opposed to bullying inflicted by children, and the presence of schoolbased responses to bullying, the more persuasive view is that the laws do not and should not require harm
caused by school bullying to be reported by teachers to government child protection agencies.