Everybody in Oklahoma Is Supposed to Report Child Abuse
Video Transcribed: How do you report child abuse in Oklahoma? Oklahoma Child Protective Services Attorney Ryan Cannonie, with CPS investigation defense, And one thing that comes up sometimes and especially when we’re talking about child custody, possibly one parent talking to me about another one saying, “Hey, I think there may be abuse going on. What do we do?”
Well, there are two ways to go about this. First is if you believe there’s criminal conduct, abuse, or neglect going on, then you can always contact law enforcement about it. But also, there is a number for DHS. The DHS hotline number is 1-(800)-522-3511.
If you believe the child’s in imminent danger very quickly, then you can always call 911. And you probably should call 911, they’re going to be faster than that 800 number. So that 800 number is how you will let someone know that there’s an abused or neglected child situation going on.
Some things about calling in. If you’re the reporting party, your identity is usually withheld. It’s not going to be told to anybody by law. DHS can’t disclose your identity to the people they’re investigating.
So if you call it in, unless the people who you’re calling in on that are abusing the child or something going on there, unless they can figure it out themselves, then they’re not going to know it was you.
The second thing is under Oklahoma law, everybody who believes that there is child abuse going on, or has reason to believe is actually, I believe, the wording on that, then you’re a mandatory reporter. Everybody in Oklahoma is supposed to report child abuse through that 1-800 number.
And that’s how a child abuse case or a deprived case gets started. If you have any questions about depriving cases, then please give us a call. Cpsinvestigationdefense.com.
We can talk to you about it from the beginning all the way through a filed court case, the end of it, all the processes and steps in between to let you know how it goes. So hopefully, we can help you and we’ll try to answer your question best we can give us a call and we will have an Oklahoma CPS attorney reach you.