We all know that educators are an important group in the prevention and recognition of child sexual abuse. Not only do they interact with large numbers of children and their parents, children who disclose abuse often tell a teacher. In fact, school personnel are the source of over 50% of the abuse reports made by professionals to authorities.
The state of Texas has a legislative mandate for teachers to participate in child abuse education and in August of 2014, the Texas Education Agency put forth a requirement that the training be completed by all school personnel in the 14-15 school year. Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children program was made available to school districts to meet the requirement and we are pleased to announce that almost 90,000 staff and educators have participated in Stewards. We thank all of the amazing teachers and school personnel in Texas for making this commitment to their children. We also would like to thank all of our partners in Texas who helped make it happen.
Did you know that currently, only about one-third of educators throughout the nation receive child sexual abuse training, either as part of their coursework or through continuing education. In fact, 24% of teachers report that they have never received instruction, either oral or written, on their state’s mandated reporting process for any type of abuse. We are thrilled to see legislative mandates like the one in Texas that are helping to change this statistic and get education professionals the training they need to protect children.
Darkness to Light | 7 Radcliffe Street, Suite 200 | Charleston, SC 29403
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