Failure to Report Abuse: Do You Know Your Reporting Laws?

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By Jessica Eturralde - Posted at MinistryWatch:

Published January 1, 2025

In a troubling trend, police in Minnesota, Ohio, Florida, Arizona, and Louisiana have arrested a number of church leaders in separate cases for failing to report alleged child abuse.

The wave of cases, which have arisen in the last month, raises questions about church and ministry accountability and their legal and moral obligations to protect children in their care, specifically by alerting civil authorities when leaders suspect abuse.

This basic duty has been a fixture of American law for well over half a century. Since 1967, every state has enacted some form of mandatory child-abuse reporting law.

But in nearly 60 years, there have been changes, and what has changed most is not whether the laws exist, but the scope of those laws: who must report, what they must report, the penalties for failing to do so, and understanding exemptions.

Because of these factors (which have changed across states and denominations as much as over time), many church leaders are unaware or uncertain about their own reporting responsibilities within these laws.



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