The LA County Office of Education (LACOE) and the Mandated Supporting Initiative (MSI) have done that rare thing: they’ve quickly turned legislation into action. The brief they released, Educators Lead the Way in Mandated Reporting Reform, is a template for how counties across California can embed the intent of AB 2085 into schools to reduce unnecessary child welfare reports by connecting families to the tangible supports they need before a crisis ever begins.

The Data Has Always Told This Story
California’s child welfare system receives nearly 400,000 reports every year. Yet only 1 in 9 children with an allegation of abuse and/or neglect, just over 10%, is substantiated [1]. Almost half of children with an allegation of maltreatment are related to general neglect, a catch-all category that too often brings children and families into Child Protective Services (CPS) for a lack of resources, not for true maltreatment. General neglect allegations are unsubstantiated nearly 80% of the time.

The data further shows that Education accounts for the most reports of maltreatment with nearly 25% of all allegations. Yet across California, those reports are only substantiated 4% of the time. The data is similar In LA County where Education accounts for 24% of all CPS reports, yet only 8% are substantiated.

Four years ago, Safe & Sound helped sound the alarm. In partnership with the Office of Child Abuse Prevention, we released an issue brief shining a light on the over-reporting of neglect and its disproportionate toll on Black and Native families. The momentum it helped build, paved the way for AB 2085. This is not a call to abolish CPS, but rather to examine current policies and practices to increase the precision of reporting with the central objective to ensure families can thrive.

What the Law Changed — and What It Didn’t

AB 2085, signed in 2022 and effective January 2023, revised California’s definition of general neglect to explicitly exclude economic hardship, and requires a substantial risk of serious physical harm before a CPS report is warranted. Most significantly, it gave educators a legal third option: find support for a family rather than report to CPS when a child’s safety is not in question.

Reform Only Works If the Ecosystem Exists

This reform is not about changing what happens inside the child welfare system. It is about building a prevention ecosystem outside of it.

Educators are perfectly positioned to be one piece of that connective tissue. They see families early, notice instability before it becomes a crisis, and have relationships that make hard conversations possible. For years, they had nowhere to turn except the hotline, not because they wanted to report families, but because they had no alternative. AB 2085 changes that, backed by new training, decision-support tools, and an evolving in-school support structure with community linkages. The goal is simple but powerful: connect families to support before a crisis emerges. That is prevention in the truest sense.

Los Angeles Is Leading the Way
In May 2023, the LA County Board of Supervisors unanimously formalized the Mandated Supporting Initiative, producing the state’s first AB 2085-aligned training, a decision-support tool, and a Family Resource Finder. In October 2024, LACOE and MSI convened an Education Summit with more than 130 district leaders from across the county and began rolling out AB 2085 training with educators.

Fast forward to 2026, and LACOE conducted listening sessions with four local education agencies that were early adopters of the AB 2085 training—Inglewood Unified, Lynwood Unified, Lawndale Elementary, and Vaughn Next Century Learning Center. The conversations revealed a clear three-stage framework.

• Changing practice requires scenario-based training and clear consultation pathways. Educators need to know who to call before they reach for the hotline.

• Shifting systems demands leadership commitment, as well as tangible resources like food, housing, and mental health services that make “support don’t report” a real option.

• Sustaining change means embedding training in Human Resource systems, aligning board policy with the law, and securing stable, dedicated funding.

Early results are promising: educator confidence in supporting families increased nearly 30% after training, and 95% of live training participants can correctly define general neglect. But only 1.8% of LA County education staff have been trained so far. The infrastructure is proven. Scale is the next goal.

This is What Child Safety Actually Looks Like
Critics sometimes ask whether reducing reports puts children at risk. This reform takes that question seriously and answers it directly. A caseworker investigating a family whose only issue is unpaid rent is a caseworker not investigating a child in genuine danger. When trained mandated reporters, proven decision-making tools, and community resources can come together to support families navigating everyday hardship, child welfare can focus precisely on the children who truly need protection. That is not a threat to child safety. It is a more effective version of it.

What We Believe
Prevention works. Community-based support builds the conditions for families to thrive and offers a pathway to help when those conditions break down. AB 2085 shows that legislation can set the framework, but it takes real resources, real relationships, and real pathways to make supporting families before a crisis a reality. Los Angeles County is showing what that looks like, and sharing a roadmap for other counties to join the reform.

At Safe & Sound, we recognize the urgency of strengthening the systems that families depend on. Through our new Community Pathway Initiative, we are working alongside trusted community partners to ensure the intent of AB 2085, that poverty is not treated as neglect, means families are connected to a network of organizations and a workforce equipped with the knowledge, skills, and infrastructure to truly show up for them. Join us in building a community where no family has to navigate their hardest moments alone. Learn how you can get involved here.

[1]California Child Welfare Indicators Project (CCWIP), CDSS/UC Berkeley. https://ccwip.berkeley.edu/

Child abuse and neglect, and the trauma they can cause, are complex problems with far-reaching consequences to individuals, communities, and society as a whole. Last year in California there were 46,568 survivors of child abuse and neglect, or 127 children each day. These numbers represent so many missed opportunities for prevention. The total economic burden incurred by California communities for the lifetime costs of these survivors is $16.8 billion. For the same amount, 1.29 million children could be sent to preschool.

The impact on the children, families and communities affected last for a lifetime. You can read more on this page about the long-reaching effects of abuse and toxic stress on impacted children and their families. The data also brings into stark relief the financial cost of the current approach that prioritizes intervention after a crisis has occurred instead of an approach that focuses on prevention.

Child and family well-being is shaped by a complex web of influences—from individual experiences to broader societal conditions. To truly prevent harm and foster resilience, our work is holistic, multi-level, and interconnected, and our Strategic Goals are intentionally woven into each level of the ecological framework of prevention. Whether we are supporting a caregiver in crisis, building trauma-responsive practices within a family-serving organization, or advocating for just policies at the state level, each of Safe & Sound’s goals reflects a commitment to ensuring that children are safe, families are strong, and communities are equipped to thrive.

Safe & Sound’s programming has already achieved remarkable results—reaching over 200,000 individuals in the last 20 years alone, and creating systems-change, contributing to a 64% reduction in the rate of child abuse and a 51% reduction in entries into foster care in San Francisco. But we can’t do this alone. Safe & Sound is powered by people—by all of you who show up, speak out, and stand with families. Thank you for being on the journey with us.

Safe & Sound is leading a bold, transformative effort to reimagine how families in San Francisco—and ultimately across California—access the support they need to thrive. The Community Pathway Initiative aligns all the areas of Safe & Sound’s work, including advocacy, direct services, education and partnership.

Through this Initiative, we are creating long-term, sustainable transformation by building a scalable, upstream, community-based model, leveraging a network of family support centers, designed to reduce child welfare and criminal justice involvement by providing timely, trusted, and trauma-informed care before crises escalate.

This work is a continuation of our vision set out in a 2022 issue brief Creating a Child & Family Well-Being System: A Paradigm Shift from Mandated Reporting to Community Supporting, which laid out a roadmap to shift from a punitive, fear-based reporting model to a supportive, community-based approach, and is supported by the discussions held in our tri-annual Lunch & Learn webinars, the recordings of which you can revisit on this page.

This initiative is a long-term project requiring sustainable funding streams, which could leave a powerful legacy. Safe & Sound will continue to offer updates as we make progress to further this initiative, but if you are interested to know more we would welcome a discussion with you to see how you would be interested to support. You can contact a member of the team by emailing donations@safeandsound.org.

We are thrilled to celebrate the passage of SB 119, signed into law on July 29, 2025. This landmark social services trailer bill amends the California Welfare and Institutions Code and represents a visible, powerful endorsement of the work of the Mandated Reporting to Community Supporting Task Force—a transformational initiative advanced in partnership with CA Health & Human Services, CA Department of Social Services, and the Prevention & Early Intervention Committee.

Safe & Sound is at the forefront of efforts to reimagine mandated reporting systems in California. In 2022, we authored the issue brief Creating a Child & Family Well-Being System: A Paradigm Shift from Mandated Reporting to Community Supporting, which laid out a roadmap to shift from the current reporting model to a supportive, community-based approach.

Building on this foundation, we led the successful passage of California Assembly Bill 2085, which amended California law to ensure that poverty alone is not treated as “general neglect”—a critical step toward reducing the overreporting of low-income families, particularly those identifying as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

As a core member and facilitator of the statewide Mandated Reporting to Community Supporting Task Force, Safe & Sound continues to drive this systemic change, helping lead the development and implementation of 14 reform recommendations presented to the California Child Welfare Council, three of which are delivered through the passage of SB 119.

✅ Mandated Reporting Advisory Committee (MRAC)
For the first time in law, a Mandated Reporting Advisory Committee (MRAC) shall be established by the California Child Welfare Council. It is the intent of the Legislature that the MRAC ensure the transformation of mandated reporting to community supporting continues and disparities in the child welfare system are eliminated. (Delivering on Task Force Recommendation 1)

✅ Comprehensive Prevention Plans (CPPs)
When counties update their Comprehensive Prevention Plans, the update shall include the county’s plans to provide information for mandated reporters regarding the resources available to support families in their communities. This helps to ensure that families can be connected to early, community-focused interventions, not unnecessary surveillance. (Delivering on Task Force Recommendation 12)

✅ Mandated Reporter Training Reform
The law requires that the development of the new statewide mandated reporter training incorporate content identified in the Task Force recommendations. Critically, the training must be developed in partnership with individuals with lived expertise, county child welfare agencies, and other stakeholders, bringing real-world insight to a system in urgent need of change. (Delivering on Task Force Recommendation 9)

This is more than a policy win: it’s a turning point. By embedding Task Force recommendations into statute, California has signaled its long-term commitment to shifting from a system rooted in reporting and punishment toward one grounded in support, equity, and community trust.

The passage of SB 119 proves that systemic transformation is not only possible, it’s happening.