School-Based Child 

Maltreatment 

Programs

Synthesis of lessons learned

March 2003

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 

Administration for Children and Families 

Administration on Children, Youth and Families 

Children’s Bureau

Child Welfare Information Gateway

Children’s Bureau/ACYF

1250 Maryland Avenue, SW

Eighth Floor

Washington, DC 20024

703.385.7565 or 800.394.3366

Email: info@childwelfare.gov

www.childwelfare.gov
This synthesis was made possible by the Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children, Youth 

and Families, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human 

Services. The conclusions discussed here are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not 

represent the official views or policies of the funding agency. Publication does not in any way 

constitute an endorsement by the Department of Health and Human Services. Suggested citation: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, 

Children’s Bureau (2003). School-Based Child Maltreatment Programs: Synthesis of Lessons 

Learned. Washington, DC.
School-Based Child Maltreatment Programs

1

www.childwelfare.gov

Schools provide a unique environment for 

identifying child maltreatment and providing 

prevention and intervention services. Due to 

their sustained contact with children, teachers 

and other school personnel have extensive 

opportunities to observe children’s behaviors, socio-emotional functioning, academic 

achievement, and cognitive development. 

Schools also have access to parents through 

activities such as parent-teacher conferences, 

Parent-Teacher Association meetings, and 

other events that encourage parent involvement in their children’s schools. In addition, 

schools are often a focal point for community 

activities and concerns. 

In Fiscal Year 1997, the Office on Child Abuse 

and Neglect (OCAN), Children’s Bureau, 

Administration for Children and Families, 

Department of Health and Human Services, 

provided 3-year grants to develop and implement demonstration projects that address 

child maltreatment identification, prevention, 

and treatment in collaboration with preschool, 

elementary, and secondary school systems. 

This synthesis, based on an evaluation of the 

final reports of 11 grantees1

, describes the 

demonstration projects and some of the key 

lessons learned about how child maltreatment 

prevention and intervention efforts can be 

enhanced through the involvement of a school 

or school system. The projects identified strategies that improved outcomes for children by: 

• Facilitating collaboration with schools.

• Enhancing teacher, parent, and child 

knowledge and skills pertaining to child 

maltreatment.

1	 Synthesis Report of the School-Based Child Maltreatment 

Prevention, Identification and Treatment Services Demonstration 

Projects, final report for Children’s Bureau contract #GS-10F0204K, “Technical Assistance on Evaluation,” prepared for

James Bell Associates by Jacqueline Smollar, Ph.D.

• Enlisting school staff in efforts to prevent 

child maltreatment and intervene when 

children are at risk for, or are victims of, 

maltreatment.

Children’s Bureau demonstration projects test 

new, distinctive approaches for service delivery, or whether a service that has proven successful in one setting can work in a different 

context. A demonstration project must: 

• Develop and implement an evidence-based 

model; or replicate a successfully evaluated 

program model.

• Use multiple measures to evaluate the 

effectiveness of the model.

• Produce detailed procedures and materials 

that may be used to guide replication or 

testing of strategies, practices, and programs in other settings.

As such, the evaluations of these programs 

provide information that can help guide 

organizations wishing to implement evidencebased child maltreatment identification, 

prevention, and intervention services in collaboration with schools. Detailed information 

about each demonstration project is available 

in Appendix A. Contact information for each 

grantee is listed in Appendix B. The grantees’ 

final reports are available from Child Welfare 

Information Gateway (1.800.394.3366 or 

info@childwelfare.gov).

General Service Approaches

and Outcomes

Services provided by the demonstration 

projects fit three general categories: child 

maltreatment identification-related services, 

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primary prevention services and activities, and 

intervention-related services. Grantees typically focused on one or two of these service 

types.

Child Maltreatment IdentificationRelated Services

Grantees trained or assisted teachers and 

other professionals in identifying the signs of 

child maltreatment and in making appropriate 

referrals to services and reports to child protective services agencies. Activities included:

• Training on identifying and reporting 

child maltreatment. The primary goals 

of these trainings were to increase participants’ knowledge of the signs of child 

abuse or neglect, how to meet mandated 

reporting requirements if child maltreatment is suspected, and how to make appropriate referrals to services if necessary. 

• Assisting teachers in identifying the signs 

of child maltreatment. Grantees developed risk assessment protocols for teachers 

to use in identifying children who may be at 

risk for child maltreatment, trained teachers in the correct use of the protocols, and 

provided individual technical assistance in 

identifying signs of child maltreatment and 

making referrals to community services.

Outcomes. Participants demonstrated an 

increased understanding of the roles and 

procedures associated with child abuse and 

neglect investigations. Teachers who attended 

trainings also indicated a greater willingness 

to report suspected cases of child abuse or 

neglect than those who had not attended. 

PrimaryPrevention

Services/Activities

Services classified as primary prevention are 

designed to increase the knowledge and skills 

of teachers, parents, and children regarding 

appropriate discipline and parenting practices, 

positive adult-child and peer interactions, 

and nonviolent responses to stress or conflict. 

These services were offered to the general 

population, rather than to populations identified as at risk for child maltreatment. They 

included:

• Parenting education for the general population. Parenting education for the general 

population took place both in structured 

settings such as workshops and training 

sessions and in unstructured settings such 

as support groups.

• Teacher education. The objectives of these 

services were to create nurturing and violence-free classrooms and to support teachers in serving as positive role models for 

children in responding to stressful events. 

• Special activities/presentations for children and youth. These included activities 

for children such as self-esteem groups, 

teen mom programs, and mentoring programs; presentations of skills-based curricula for children such as Kids on the Block 

and Talking About Touch; and training for 

teachers on implementing a particular classroom curriculum.

• Special activities/presentations for families and parents. These activities were 

designed to present child maltreatmentrelated information through events such 

as community fairs, walk-a-thons, and 

school fairs. 
School-Based Child Maltreatment Programs

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• Public awareness campaigns. Activities 

included distributing promotional items, 

offering health screenings, and printing 

newsletters to increase public knowledge 

regarding child maltreatment, available 

services, and trainings. 

Outcomes. Teachers who participated in prevention services demonstrated an increased 

understanding of the principles of nonviolence, appropriate discipline, and nurturing 

behaviors. They also integrated what they 

learned into their classroom behavior and 

lesson plans. Children who attended prevention presentations showed an increased 

awareness of safety issues and demonstrated 

greater knowledge of child abuse and neglect. 

In some cases, this led to disclosures about 

their own experiences of maltreatment. The 

community at large benefited from public 

awareness campaigns by becoming more 

knowledgeable about child maltreatment 

issues and the community services available to 

support families.

Intervention-RelatedServices

This category includes services delivered to 

children and families identified as at risk for 

child maltreatment or children who were suspected victims of child maltreatment. 

• Direct services to at-risk families. Direct 

services included home visits, case management, counseling, therapy, mentoring, and 

food and clothing. 

• Direct services to at-risk children. These 

services included support groups, social 

events, tutoring, counseling, and therapy. 

• Technical assistance and training in 

responding to suspected or disclosed 

child maltreatment. Some projects provided individual technical assistance and 

guidance to teachers in responding to 

children’s disclosure of child maltreatment. 

Others included the topic of responding to 

suspected or disclosed child maltreatment 

as part of their training for teachers and 

professionals. 

• Parenting education for at-risk families. 

Parenting education efforts for families 

identified as at risk generally involved presenting an established curriculum in a series 

of sessions. 

• Developing resource directories and/or 

service guidelines. Some projects developed resource directories or service guidelines designed to be used by schools or 

other agencies in making child abuse and 

neglect reports and referring families for 

appropriate services.

Outcomes. Children who received intervention services generally experienced improved 

school performance, increased attendance, 

and fewer behavior problems. Participating 

parents demonstrated significant gains in their 

knowledge of how the child maltreatment 

reporting system works, knowledge about 

stress and violence, and increased awareness 

of the implications of children as a source of 

parental stress. For at least one grantee, intervention-related services proved cost effective. 

The annual cost for an at-risk family to participate in the grantee’s program was far less than 

the annual cost for the Department of Human 

Services to assist a family referred for services.
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Lessons Learned

The grantees discussed in this report overcame many challenges to meet their objectives of collaborating with schools to provide 

child maltreatment identification, prevention, 

and intervention services. As a result, they 

were able to offer recommendations that 

may be of use to organizations implementing 

similar projects.

GeneralRecommendations

Several of the grantees’ recommendations 

apply to the implementation of any comprehensive child maltreatment identification, 

prevention, and intervention project.

• Be flexible to accommodate the schedules 

of all participants, including school personnel, parents, teenagers, and children.

• Be sensitive to differences in language and 

culture in developing outreach and prevention education efforts.

• Be willing to eliminate a planned service or 

change an existing service in response to 

new information about participant needs 

and interests. 

• Be realistic about participation levels. Most 

projects expected they would be serving 

more teachers, parents, and children than 

were actually served. 

Collaboration with Schools

Challenges associated with collaboration with 

schools included lack of support from school 

administrators, scheduling conflicts with other 

school activities, and inappropriate referrals or 

requests resulting from misperceptions about 

the project’s goals. Grantees cited the following lessons learned:

• Full commitment from the school system 

leadership or school principal is necessary 

to ensure effective collaboration. Consider 

including a school principal on the program 

advisory board.

• Schedule project activities involving teachers in advance and with the full support of 

school principals or administrators.

• Develop a shared understanding of the 

project’s model, methods, and desired outcomes among school and project staff. 

• Help school personnel see how the project 

contributes to the school’s mission. This will 

result in more (and more appropriate) referrals to the project.

• Work to develop constant communication 

between project and school staff, and strive 

for visibility of project staff at the schools. 

• Be persistent. Schools are under pressure to 

fulfill many agendas. 

• Be aware of the challenges teachers 

encounter working in schools where the 

problems experienced by children and 

families often outnumber available supports 

and services.

• Seek to establish collaborative relationships with other agencies in the community 

(primarily, but not exclusively, social service 

agencies). A school-based prevention 

program works best when it engages all 

sectors of the community. 

Project Staffing

Frequent staff turnover and difficulty recruiting qualified staff were common challenges 
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reported by grantees. Recommendations 

included:

• Seek project directors with experience 

implementing Federal grants.

• Stress the importance of commitment and 

continuity when hiring staff. 

• Offer project staff full-time positions and 

salaries commensurate with those of teachers and public health workers. 

• Project staff must have extensive knowledge of and experience with the network of 

local providers in order to make appropriate service referrals.

• Project staff should include someone who is 

a member of the community being served, 

or should work to develop and maintain 

support from members of the community to 

establish trust between the community and 

the project.

Teacher Training

Demonstration projects reported scheduling 

conflicts and low participation to be common 

challenges associated with teacher training. 

They made the following recommendations:

• Schedule training as far in advance as possible; take the school calendar into account.

• Provide training that does not require 

an extensive time commitment from 

participants.

• Provide continuing education credits.

• Offer training off site; provide a stipend and 

lunch.

Direct Services

In implementing direct services for children 

and families, demonstration projects noted 

difficulties with ensuring project staff safety 

during home visits and with recruiting and 

retaining participants. Grantees cited the following lessons learned:

• Families may be more willing to participate if the program is perceived as being 

focused on family strengthening or support, 

rather than on child maltreatment prevention or intervention. 

• Make direct services available to children 

and families outside of school hours.

• Consider providing one-on-one case management to families in their own homes.

• Develop procedures to keep program staff 

safe when making home visits.

Parent Engagement and Retention

in Parenting Education

The key challenge associated with parent 

education was low attendance. For some 

participants, protecting confidentiality was a 

concern. Recommendations included:

• Be aware of other programs for parents 

being offered at the same time. 

• Recruit volunteers to provide child care and 

transportation. 

• Provide food or other incentives (such as 

gift certificates) at each session.

• Offer parenting education on a one-to-one 

basis if confidentiality is an issue.

• Work with schools to obtain commitments 

from parents to attend the program.
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• Some attrition is to be expected. Recruit 

more participants (at least 30 percent more) 

than you need for the program. 

Conclusion

The projects included a variety of approaches 

to child abuse prevention and intervention, 

many of which proved effective. Direct services provided to at-risk families and children 

appear to have improved family functioning 

and child behaviors. Training on recognizing the signs of maltreatment and on reporting maltreatment appears to have enhanced 

school personnel’s knowledge, skills, and 

comfort with the reporting process. Teacher 

training on nurturing and on the principles of 

nonviolence appears to have been integrated 

into the classroom environment. Classroom 

presentations to young children were found 

to enhance their understanding of child 

maltreatment issues and, in some instances, 

to help them disclose their own experiences 

of maltreatment.

Organizations wishing to implement schoolbased programs for identification, prevention, 

and intervention of child maltreatment can use 

the lessons learned from these demonstration 

projects to build more successful programs in 

the future.