CPT Referral Criteria for the General Public

The Child Protection Team (CPT) does not accept direct referrals from concerned parents, family members, or the community at large. This is because the Florida Child Protection System wants to ensure that every child abuse concern is appropriately reported and accepted for investigation. Once a report has been generated to the Florida Abuse Hotline (1-800-962-2873), CPT receives the report and our medical staff will review it to determine if it meets the mandatory referral criteria, outline in the Florida Statutes, to be referred for services.

The mandatory referral criteria are listed under the referral criteria for professionals. CPT cannot assess a child and then report it if there is a concern or substantiation of abuse. The Child Protection Team is a medically directed, multidisciplinary program based on the idea that child abuse and neglect involve complex issues and require the expertise of many professionals to protect children.

To help you better understand the Florida Child Protection System, CPT has created the below flow chart. It all begins with a report to the hotline. Remember everyone is a mandated reporter and required to report their concerns and suspicions to the Florida Abuse Hotline. You do not have to know that a child is being abused to make a report.

All you need is to have a concern or suspicion that a child is being abused. Once the report is generated the appropriate agencies will investigate the concern to determine whether or not the child is being abused.