is it crystal clear? A qualitative study of the obligation to report for school counselors. rebecca diaz nina petersson Diaz, R & Petersson, N. Is it crystal clear? A qualitative study of the obligation to report for school counselors. Degree project in Social work, 15 högskolepoäng. Malmö University: Faculty of Health and Society, Department of Social work, 2019. The goal of the study is to illustrate how school counselors view their duty to report from a legal perspective and how they perceive their discretion in connection with the duty to report in Chapter 14. 1§ the Social Services Act. In the study, we also wanted to highlight how the school counselors experiences the mandatory reporting and how the professionals look at reporting. The school is the environment second to home where the children spend most of their time. In order to discover child maltreatment, professionals must report these circumstances to the social welfare committee. However, there are indications that this is not done to the extent that it should. The media occasionally reports on events where children get maltreated and when it has not been noticed by, for example, school staff. The study is based on a qualitative method in which we have chosen to carry out six semi-structured interviews with school counselors at various schools in southern Sweden. Furthermore, the empirical data has been analyzed on the basis of Lipsky's theory of street level bureaucrates and discretion in order to understand more clearly how the school social worker can relate when it comes to the duty to report under Chapter 14. 1§ the Social Services Act. The study has shown that despite the fact that the duty to report is compulsory for a professional who comes in contact with children there are factors that influence why the study informants does not always make a report. From the study's results, it appears that the informants have a good knowledge of their duty to report. The study shows that there is an uncertainty about the duty to report children who get maltreated, particulary in school. The results indicates that the school counselors creates a discretion when it comes to the law, which means that they sometimes find other ways to help the child even if this is not compatible with their duty. However, school counselors discretion is affected by the fact that they are usually alone in their profession at a school, which means that their legitimacy in relation to other professions at the school decreases.