Child or youth-oriented organizations have a standard of care they must meet to protect those children from child abuse and child sexual abuse. At School Liability Expert Group, we have a child abuse expert who can assist your case via consultation, school review, witness services, and training. Our team has specific, diversified experience, including a daycare child abuse expert and a church sexual abuse expert. School Liability Exert Group has assisted with cases ranging from summer camp sexual abuse to after-school program child abuse.
Defining Child Abuse and the Standard of Care
It is important to understand the legal definition of child abuse. Child abuse laws differ depending on the state in which the abuse occurred. School Liability Expert Group services the entire United States, and the child abuse expert does not have to be in the same state the issue is in. Generally, the following are examples of actions that would be considered child abuse across the country.
Physical Harm
Physical harm can include striking a child with an object or part of your body with the intention of hurting the child. Excessive physical restraint, preventing a child from meeting basic needs for food and clean water, and withholding necessary medical treatment can all be considered child abuse.
Emotional Harm
Emotional harm can be harder to quantify, but our after-school program or daycare child abuse expert, for example, can provide specific insight for your type of child-oriented organization. Believable threats to kill or severely harm a child or knowingly allowing a child to be emotionally harmed are two examples of emotional abuse. This can include allowing a child to witness violence or severe, continued harassment.
Child Sexual Abuse
Sexual harm covers a wide range of issues from statutory rape, which covers any sexual activity involving a child below the age of consent, to exposing a child to pornographic material. School Liability Expert Group has unique experience, including a church sexual child abuse expert and extensive knowledge of standards for specific types of child organizations, such as summer camp sexual abuse. Every case is unique– do not hesitate to book a call with us to discuss how we can help you.
Negligence and Standard of Care
The standard of care refers to the level and type of care a reasonably competent professional with a similar background and setting would have provided under the same circumstances. Schools, daycares, churches, and other child- or youth-oriented programs have a duty to provide reasonably safe premises that cover issues related to child abuse. Consulting an after-school program or daycare child abuse expert can help you ensure you meet the standard of care expected for your type of organization.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is an important set of laws that directly address the professional standards of care in education administration and supervision. It is important to note that organizations that do not meet the professional standard of care can be held liable for negligence in scenarios in which they are not directly responsible for child abuse, such as summer camp sexual abuse by older campers. Of course, such as in some cases, our church sexual child abuse expert has seen abuse directly by someone in charge of a youth program also is a breach of that standard of care.
Child Abuse Prevention and Reporting Policies
It is vital to have in place a viable set of regulations for your child or youth organization to prevent child abuse. All staff members should clearly understand the difference between appropriate physical interactions and inappropriate physical interactions. For example, handshakes, high-fives, holding hands in escorting situations, and touching hands, shoulders, and arms are generally appropriate. However, full-frontal hugs, kisses, lap sitting, tickling, any type of massage, and touching the bottom, chest, or genital areas are inappropriate physical interactions and could be considered educational or after-school program child abuse by a daycare child abuse expert.
Your youth organization will also need to define appropriate and inappropriate verbal interactions, one-on-one interactions, outside contact, and electronic communication. School Liability Expert Group can conduct a review of policies and make recommendations to ensure the institution meets the standard of care. Many cases of child sexual abuse, such as summer camp sexual abuse, are preventable with the right policies in place. For recommendations specific to a type of institution, our church sexual abuse expert, for example, can provide individualized, tailored insight.
Child and Youth Organization Expert Witness Services
School Liability Expert Group has worked with both plaintiff and defendant attorneys to provide a child abuse expert on matters pertaining to child and youth organizations. We can step in at any level of concern when it comes to child abuse, whether your youth organization seeks a review of your existing policies to determine the standard of care or if you need expert reports and testimony for court. Through our extensive experience, our team has developed a process to promptly and reliability determine the viability of a child abuse case. We combine research and specialized knowledge to ascertain whether a child or youth organization reasonably protects children from abuse or sexual abuse. This includes verifying if the institution knew or should have known whether the abuse was occurring.
Our school, youth program, church, and daycare child abuse experts are specifically trained for a variety of institutions. Our experience is wide-ranging, from after-school program child abuse to summer camp sexual abuse. When it comes to child sexual abuse, we have a church sexual abuse expert as well as experts in other youth programs that are not just educational institutions. Due to the large size of our firm, we are able to push out a high number of reports quickly. Our outputs speak to how thorough we are– and we have worked with hundreds of law firms. Our experts undergo continued training, ensuring court-qualified expertise. There are a variety of areas we can help with; contact us to talk with a child abuse expert.