Official Site of The State of New Jersey

New Jersey Task Force Releases Report Calling for Action to Safely Reduce Overreporting of Child Neglect

TRENTON, NJ – March 9, 2026 - The New Jersey Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect (NJTFCAN) today announced the release of a new report outlining recommendations to safely reduce the overreporting of child neglect in New Jersey, particularly in cases rooted in poverty and material hardship rather than intentional child maltreatment.

Hundreds of reports are made every day to New Jersey’s child abuse hotline, but more than two-thirds of those reports allege suspected neglect — which is not abuse. Fewer than three percent of those reports are determined to need system intervention.

“I know first-hand what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a neglect report,” said Kayann Foster, Community Healthy Worker and Co-Chair of the Subcommittee on Poverty, Neglect, and Community Outcomes. “What looks like a murky space between poverty and neglect to a mandated reporter is the real life of someone who needs support, not surveillance. This report makes it clear that too many families in our state are needlessly scared and traumatized by a reporting system that needs reform.”

Crafted by the Task Force’s Subcommittee on Poverty, Neglect, and Community Outcomes, this report examines how current reporting and response practices can unintentionally cause harm to children and families by too often confusing poverty with neglect. Drawing on national research, data, and lived experience, the report offers a roadmap for aligning child welfare policy and practice with evidence-based approaches that promote family stability, child wellbeing, and community strength.

Among its key recommendations, the report calls for:

• Increasing the precision and accuracy of mandated reporting with a new gold standard statewide training that provides tools and knowledge on when and how to best support a family.
• Addressing the misuse and weaponization of the reporting system by increasing penalties for false reports and adjusting practices around anonymous reporting. 
• Placing the responsibility of mandated reporting with child-serving professionals who are trained to accurately assess situations of abuse and neglect, rather than continuing a system that makes every resident of or adult in New Jersey a mandated reporter.
• A greater understanding of the costs of overreporting on an already overburdened child protection system, and a move towards systems and procedures that place a greater emphasis on supporting families in New Jersey.

“If enacted, these recommendations will help New Jersey move away from a system that fails too many children and families who simply need food or other assistance,” said Mary Coogan, President and CEO of Advocates for Children of New Jersey and Co-Chair of NJTFCAN. “Children and families do better when mandated reporters can connect them to resources instead of feeling compelled to call the child abuse hotline for issues rooted in poverty.”

The Task Force emphasizes that reducing overreporting is not about lowering standards for child safety, but about ensuring that families receive the right help, at the right time, through the right systems.

“By improving our system’s ability to differentiate between neglect and poverty, we’re freeing up resources to respond when true child maltreatment occurs,” said NJ Department of Children and Families Commissioner Christine Norbut Beyer, who also serves as a co-chair of NJTFCAN. “The Department of Children and Families will continue striving to ensure families receive supports and resources they need, at the time they need them, rather than punishing parents with unnecessary child protective services investigations for being poor.”

The recommendations and report were developed with the leadership of state partners, advocates, leaders from community-based organizations, teachers and principals, law enforcement officials, and—most importantly—individuals with lived experience. NJTFCAN encourages policymakers, child-serving professionals, and community stakeholders to review the findings and engage in next steps to advance the recommendations.

The full report is available at: /dcf/news/reportsnewsletters/taskforce/Mandated-Reporting-Reform_Final-Report_NJ-Subcommitte-PNCO_1.26.pdf

About the New Jersey Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect and the Subcommittee on Poverty, Neglect, and Community Outcomes

The New Jersey Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect (NJTFCAN) is a statutorily established, multi-disciplinary advisory body to New Jersey’s child welfare system, charged to study and develop recommendations regarding the most effective means of improving the quality and scope of child protective and preventative services provided or supported by the state government.

The NJTFCAN Subcommittee on Poverty, Neglect, and Community Outcomes was convened in 2023 to examine and develop recommendations to address ways in which the current operation of the child welfare system in New Jersey conflates poverty and neglect.