"All school district employees are required by law to report suspected child abuse."
"An employee who fails to make such a report violates state statue and is subject to discipline up to and including dismissal."

I was caught up in this mess just once around ten years ago. Even though I had no real proof of the incident I mentioned what I had heard to a child team member working with my students. When I shared what I had been privy to I was instructed to report the incident. I was told by the child team member to report or I could be held accountable for not reporting. After much thought I did share what i had learned with the principal of the school. The situation from there spiraled out of control. The student was removed from his home for almost 3 months before the incident was dispelled and the child returned to his father. The only thing that I was thankful for was that my name would be kept anonymous. In all of my 30 plus years of teaching I had never felt guilt like this. I truely felt that I had betrayed the student and his family.
This stuck with me for the rest of my employment and never again did I share situations of this nature with anyone.
My approach was to contact the family myself, usually on the slide, and arrange a meeting. This approach only built stronger relationships between myself, the student, and their parents/guardians.
Working with emotionally disturbed students, mostly comming from single parent households, and getting involved to this degree gave me a greater understanding of the hardships they would deal with on a daily basis. Never again did I make this mistake.
When the child was reunited with his father a meeting was scheduled during the school day to facilitate his return. I can still see the pure joy in the father's eyes and the concern in his voice that this might happen again. He was bewildered and could not comprehend how this had ever happened. I do not now how I kept a poker face when inside all I wanted to do was apologize for the mess I had caused.