Using the Duty to Report Child Abuse as a Marketing Tool

In a creative if misguided use of the law requiring many occupations to report to the state’s child
protective services whenever they have reasonable cause to believe child abuse has occurred, a
Pennsylvania dental clinic is notifying parents of children it has treated that it will need to report
them for child neglect if they do not bring their children back to the clinic for treatment. In its
letter to parents the clinic reminds them that failure to provide adequate dental care is legally
defined as child abuse. The clinic claims that it can only assume that the only reason children it
has treated have not come back for more treatment is their parents’ neglect, at least until they
learn otherwise.

This is just a very public instance of the potential for private mischief when large portions of the
populace are deputized to haul other citizens into the administrative maze of government power
where even the integrity of their family can be at risk.

© 4/4/2018 Lawrence B. Hunt of Hunt & Associates, P.C. All rights reserved.