From clergy to coaches, states are debating who should report child abuse and neglect

Conversations with sexual abuse survivors led Missouri state Sen. Tracy McCreery to wonder what could have prevented the harm, prompting her to support a bill that would require clergy and religious workers to report suspected child abuse or neglect.

Her The invoice would have forced pastors to come forward even if they had experienced abuse during confession or another religious rite. She urges people to look at the issue from a child safety perspective and not against religion.

“Children are just very vulnerable and it’s up to us as adults to not allow harm to come to them,” the Democrat told Stateline. “There should be no exception for adults who know something and simply don’t report it.”

Their bill failed to advance as the Missouri legislative session ended. Other state legislatures across the country are also grappling with the question of who should be required to report suspected child abuse or neglect, known as “mandated reporters.”

Some lawmakers are considering whether clergy should be included — and whether they should be forced to reveal information from confessions. Other lawmakers are wrestling with the question of whether athletic coaches, talent agents, camp directors and other professions with access to children should be mandated reporters.

The issue of religious freedom most recently played out in Washington state. A Washington law was enacted last year Requires clergy to report suspected child abuse and neglect, even if they receive the information through confidential communication during a religious rite, such as confession. Catholic bishops and then Orthodox churches filed a lawsuit arguing that it violated their First Amendment right to religious freedom. The US Department of Justice joined the lawsuit on the side of the bishops.

Confession is considered a sacred rite in the Catholic faith. Penitents confess their sins to a priest, who is forbidden by canon law from revealing anything that is said. The Washington law “presents Roman Catholic priests with an impossible choice: either they violate 2,000 years of church teaching and are automatically excommunicated, or they refuse to comply with the Washington law and face prison, fines and civil liability,” the bishops said. Suit said.

A federal judge blocked enforcement of that part of the law and ultimately blocked the state as well agreed to leave the obligation. Clergy remain mandated reporters, but prosecutors do not enforce reporting requirements related to confessions.

A case is pending in New York Bill wouldn’t add any Add “cleric or other clergyman of any religion” to the list of required reporters, similar to a Kansas Bill passed in the state House of Representatives but passed in the Senate this session. Both bills would exempt information obtained through a confession from the tax.

South Dakota legislator also taken into account This year, clergy were added to the state’s list of mandated reporters, with exceptions for confessions, although that proposal failed in committee. Church opponents said requiring faith leaders to make “subjective” decisions about whether complex living conditions or poverty constitute reportable abuse or neglect would harm the relationship between clergy and parishioners and conflict with First Amendment protections, according to the South Dakota Searchlight rexported.

However, a pending bill in Vermont aims to eliminate the mandatory reporting exception for confessions.

McCreery rejects the idea that an adult should confess to abuse in a religious setting without making a report, and believes there are gaps in reporting laws that endanger the safety of children.

“That really disgusts me,” she said. “Why don’t we think about our duties to protect the child?”

But Chris Motz, senior attorney at the First Liberty Institute, which tracks religious freedom cases, said the litigation in Washington should serve as a lesson for other states considering similar bills.

“The lesson for state legislators will be that they must respect longstanding religious rights while balancing the important interests of protecting children,” he said. “We don’t always have to look at things as winner-takes-all, this or that. We can do a little bit with both hands.”

Bear the legal burden

The bills sometimes operate the term “clergy” broadly, including not only ordained leaders such as priests and rabbis, but also those who serve as spiritual leaders of a religious community, church or sect.

Michael W. Halcomb, an ordained minister and assistant professor at Montreat College in North Carolina, told Stateline that if abusers knew that clergy must report anything disclosed in counseling or confession, they might not seek lend a hand at all.

“If reporting is required, perpetrators are unlikely to ever ask for help or advice,” Halcomb said. “This means the abuse remains completely hidden no matter what happens.”

Halcomb said many pastors are unable to determine where “spiritual guidance ends and a formal criminal confession begins,” which could complicate comprehensive reporting requirements.

“In other words, anyone who has the ability to isolate a child should bear the legal obligation to report.”

But Vermont Democratic State Rep. Esme Cole introduced an invoice The aim is to repeal the state’s exception to clerical confidentiality. Cole said the bill does not target any denomination or just what is said in confession. She said they were also abuses that church leaders knew about and were never reported; She would like such managers to also be required to report.

The issue is personal, Cole told Stateline. A close friend, she said, is an adult survivor of physical and emotional abuse that occurred in a church when he was about 10 years ancient. The priest accused of abuse was never disciplined and was instead moved to another location.

Cole calls it the “pass the trash” gap.

“If there is bad behavior, and by bad behavior I mean real abuse, committed by a member of the diocese, they move it to the next church or two over,” Cole said. “If we want to stop this kind of movement, we have to report it.”

Cole’s proposal comes amid a long history of clergy abuse allegations in Vermont’s only Catholic diocese. After the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2024, an additional 118 people filed confidential claims after previously settling 67 lawsuits for about $34.5 million. VTDigger reported.

Who else should report?

Other states are debating whether to add coaches and other professionals with access to children to the list of required reporters.

If the goal is to protect children, Halcomb said, states should look beyond churches and impose reporting requirements on “anyone with unsupervised authority over minors,” including club sports coaches, private teachers and camp volunteers.

Connecticut passed this month legislation that paid municipal youth camp directors, assistant directors and staff members ages 21 and older must serve as mandated reporters.

Although the clergy bill failed in South Dakota, lawmakers agreed a separate measure that every “coach of a school activity” must be a mandated reporter. Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden signed it into law in March.

California expanded Effective July 1, 2026, the definition of mandated reporter specifically includes certain school volunteers, board members, and private school employees and requires annual training for mandated reporters. The state has also enacted it a law Last year, talent agents, talent managers and talent coaches who work with minors were added.

Beth Sanborn, a retired Pennsylvania police officer, now leads other school resource officers in training for mandated reporters as school safety coordinator in Montgomery County. She asks them to imagine being pressured into describing their last sexual encounter to a stranger.

The question elicits nervous giggles from nervous adult officers, she said. She then asks them to think about a teenage child who was sexually abused by a relative and how the fear and shame can be so overwhelming that they don’t seek lend a hand.

“What if you were an 11-year-old child and it wasn’t consensual? What if it was your uncle?” Sanborn said. “Do you really want to share this with a stranger? It became a shared responsibility for us who are trained to recognize these signs.”

In Pennsylvania, Sanborn said she saw a complete shift after 2012, when the state passed the reporting requirement a law that requires School staff and contractors who have direct contact with children receive training on recognizing and reporting child abuse. The laws were subsequently passed the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State.

Sandusky, a former assistant football coach, was convicted in 2012 of sexually abusing boys. The scandal led to the firing of Joe Paterno, the respected longtime Penn State football coach who was criticized for not doing enough after learning of an allegation against Sandusky back in 1998.

Sanborn believes some school officials, from teachers to officers, are hesitant to report because a common misconception is that they have to prove that abuse occurred. The point of mandatory reporting, she said, is to allow adults to express reasonable concerns before harm comes to a child.

“The school resource officer can see one facet of a child’s behavior. The coach can see another. The guidance counselor sees another. The favorite teacher sees another.”

Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at rsequeira@stateline.org.