By the 1970s most states had mandatory child abuse reporting laws. These laws aimed at identifying abused children and setting in motion legal procedures to investigate the child's situation and either to provide services for them in their own home or to remove them from their home and place them in a safer environment (Melli, 1998).

Historically, the laws and regulations of the present are the children and grandchildren of the laws that were pioneered in the 1960s and 1970s. Certainly, experience makes any process better and smoother, but essentially, the system of three to four decades ago would have been very similar to today. What would not have percolated down to teachers, principals and other team personnel yet would have been the knowledge of the new legal system and how to function in it. This uncertainty would have undoubtedly have slowed the intervention as wary professionals move cautiously, balancing...
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