MASS. LEGISLATURE SHOULD STOP DCF's ATTEMPT TO UNDERCUT NEW LAW ON CHILD ABUSE REPORTING AND SUBSTANCE USE, CHILD ADVOCACY GROUP SAYS

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A change in regulations proposed by the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families would do serious harm to children by effectively overriding state law and ignoring the intent of the Massachusetts Legislature, a national nonprofit child advocacy group said Tuesday.

"DCF is attempting to reinstate by regulation draconian requirements concerning when medical professionals must abandon their professional judgment and report any parent who displays 'harmful patterns of substance use,'" said Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform.

The proposed change "contradicts best practice, contradicts the evidence base concerning substance use and child welfare and flouts the intent of the Legislature," Wexler said.

At issue is when various professionals are required to report their slightest suspicion of child abuse or neglect to DCF.

"The Legislature recently changed state law so 'mandated reporters' no longer must automatically report any instance of 'prenatal substance exposure,'" Wexler said. "They remain free to report it when, in their professional judgment, they believe such a report is genuinely necessary to protect a child.

"In making this change in state law, the Legislature recognized that the former knee-jerk response of automatically reporting every such instance did nothing to improve child safety. On the contrary, it compromised safety by driving pregnant women away from prenatal care and hospital delivery," Wexler said.

"Rather than respect best evidence-based practice and the intent of lawmakers, DCF now proposes to change regulations defining what constitutes 'physical injury' – which, of course, is something mandated reporters have to report," Wexler said.

"Right now, that definition includes 'addiction to drug at birth.' That's bad enough," Wexler said. "But DCF's proposal would change the definition so that physical injury includes 'exposure to harmful patterns of substance use.' What does that mean? Presumably whatever DCF wants it to mean.

"Here's what this would mean for mandated reporters: Under state law mandated reporters don't have to report 'prenatal substance exposure.' But under the new proposed regulation, they would have to report 'exposure to harmful patterns of substance use' – which, presumably, would include 'prenatal substance exposure.'

"This attempted end-run around the Legislature reflects the same arrogance that has led DCF and its predecessor agencies to tear apart families at a rate far above the national average for decades – with the worst effects on families of color," Wexler said.

"In contrast, DCF has no problem with the affluent white "Cannamoms" of the Massachusetts suburbs whose 'patterns of substance use' were celebrated in a Boston Magazine cover story," Wexler said.

Wexler said the proposal "is in keeping with the decades-long habit of DCF, and before that DSS, and before that DPW of failing to balance the potential alleged harm of parental substance use (or any other alleged parental failing) against the known severe harm of tearing children from everyone they know and love and the known risk of abuse in foster care itself, where independent studies find far higher rates of abuse than DCF acknowledges in official figures.

"We hope the members of the Massachusetts Legislature won't tolerate having DCF thumb its nose at them and will stop this end-run that would jeopardize the safety of the very children DCF claims it wants to protect."

For further information about the harm of this attempted end-run, including links to data and sources, see this post to the NCCPR Child Welfare Blog.

The National Coalition for Child Protection Reform is a nonprofit child advocacy organization dedicated to trying to make the "child welfare" system better serve America's most vulnerable children.

For further information, contact
Richard Wexler, Executive Director
rwexler(at)nccpr(dot)info

SOURCE National Coalition for Child Protection Reform