Date of Conferral
10-28-2026
Date of Award
October 2026
Degree
Doctor of Human Services (D.H.S.)
School
Human Services
Advisor
Barbara Benoliel
Abstract
Racial disparities persist in child welfare, where Black and Hispanic children are referred to child protective services, investigated, and removed at rates exceeding their share of the population. Mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect by professionals including social workers and teachers continues as a primary intervention, yet the training supporting it has not addressed the structural conditions producing inequitable outcomes. The gap in practice is that no evaluation has captured professionals’ assessments of whether that training builds the cultural awareness and equitable practice skills reporting decisions require. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive program evaluation was to explore how human services professionals at a selected agency assess the strengths and weaknesses of mandatory reporter training in building cultural awareness for practice. Delgado and Stefancic’s critical race theory guided the study, and Kirkpatrick’s four-level evaluation model, applied at Levels 1 and 2, structured the evaluation around worker reactions and learning. The research question addressed how professionals assess those strengths and weaknesses. Narrative data from an anonymous online survey completed by 12 frontline professionals trained within the past 3 years were analyzed thematically, and Likert-scale items descriptively. Six themes were developed: procedural clarity, facilitated bias reflection, absence of applied cultural content, conflation of poverty with maltreatment, contested framing of the equity content, and structural conditions beyond what training can reach. Findings may impact positive social change by identifying both the content workers would revise and the conditions that bound what training alone achieves. They also support advocacy for evidence beyond attendance counts and for embedding the poverty and maltreatment distinction in screening criteria.
Recommended Citation
Dyette, Verlecia, "Human Services Professional’s Assessment of Mandatory Reporter Training and Cultural Awareness in Child Welfare Reporting" (2026). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 20972.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/20972
