Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect.
State law identifies certain individuals as having a requirement to report child abuse or neglect if there is reasonable cause to believe that a child has suffered abuse or neglect.  These individuals must report this information to a law enforcement agency or to the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF).

Mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect include:

• medical practitioners;
• county coroners;
• medical examiners;
• law enforcement officers;
• professional school personnel;
• registered or licensed nurses;
• social service counselors;
• psychologists;
• pharmacists;
• employees of the DCYF;
• licensed or certified child care providers or their employees;
• employees of the Department of Social and Health Services;
• juvenile probation officers;
• placement and liaison specialists;
• responsible living skills program staff;
• HOPE Center staff;
• the Family and Children's Ombuds or any volunteer in that office;
• host home programs;
• any person in an official supervisory capacity with a profit or nonprofit organization that has reason to believe a person over whom he or she exercises supervisory authority has abused or neglected a child;
• Department of Corrections personnel;
• adults who have reasonable cause to believe that a child who resides with the adult is a victim of severe abuse;
• guardians ad litem and court-appointed special advocates; and
• administrative, academic, or athletic department employees of public and private institutions of higher education.

Reasonable cause for purposes of mandated reporting of child abuse and neglect is defined to mean a person witnesses or receives a credible written or oral report alleging abuse, including sexual contact, or neglect of a child.

Any mandated reporter who knowingly fails to make a report is guilty of a gross misdemeanor.
 
Clergy-Penitent Privilege.
A member of the clergy, a Christian Science practitioner, or a priest cannot be examined as to any confession or sacred confidence made without the consent of a person making the confession or sacred confidence.

Members of the clergy are required to report child abuse or neglect when the clergy member has reasonable cause to believe a child has suffered abuse or neglect, except with regard to information that a clergy member obtains in that person's professional character as a religious or spiritual advisor when the information is obtained solely in the context of a penitential communication.

A penitential communication is a communication that is:

• communicated through spoken word;
• made privately to an individual member of the clergy;
• intended by the communicant to be an act of contrition or a matter of conscience;
• intended by both parties to be confidential at the time the communication is made;
• is initiated by the communicant; and
• made in the manner and context that places the member of the clergy specifically and strictly under a level of confidentiality that is considered inviolate by religious doctrine of the member of the clergy.

A penitential communication does not include:

• providing spiritual direction, unless taking place as part of a penitential communication described above;
• religious counseling;
• individual or group therapy;
• activity related to human resources or personnel management;
• clergy assignment work;
• communications between clergy, laity, or other members of the faith that occur outside of a penitential context;
• activity relating to church administration or management;
• internal judicial proceedings;
• discipline; or
• any written communication.

Members of the clergy must warn the Department of Children, Youth, and Families or law enforcement when they have reasonable cause to believe that a child is at imminent risk of being abused or neglected, even if that belief is informed by information obtained in part as a result of a penitential communication.