States Weigh Expanding Child Abuse Reporting Requirements to Clergy, Coaches and Camp Staff
Why It Matters
Across the country, state legislatures are reassessing who bears a legal obligation to report suspected child abuse or neglect — a debate that puts religious freedom protections in direct tension with child safety goals. The question of whether clergy, sports coaches, camp directors, and private tutors should face mandatory reporting requirements has produced a patchwork of new laws, failed bills, and ongoing court battles from Washington state to Vermont.
What Happened
Lawmakers in at least half a dozen states this year considered legislation that would expand or modify mandated-reporter lists — the roster of professionals legally required to notify authorities when they suspect a child is being abused or neglected. The proposals fall into two broad categories: bills targeting clergy and religious leaders, and measures extending reporting duties to coaches, camp staff, and others with unsupervised access to minors.
A Missouri bill that would have required clergy to report suspected abuse — even information disclosed during confession or other religious rites — failed to advance before the legislative session closed. Its sponsor, Democratic state Sen. Tracy McCreery, said conversations with abuse survivors shaped her view that no exception should shield adults who have knowledge of ongoing harm. “Children are just very vulnerable,” McCreery said. “There shouldn’t be an exception for adults that know about something and just don’t report it.”
A similar clash played out in Washington state, where a law enacted last year required clergy to report abuse regardless of whether they learned of it through confidential religious communication. Catholic bishops and Orthodox churches sued, arguing the requirement violated First Amendment religious freedom protections. The U.S. Justice Department sided with the churches. A federal judge blocked that portion of the law, and state prosecutors ultimately agreed not to enforce the confession-reporting requirement. Clergy in Washington remain mandated reporters, but the confession exemption now stands.
By the Numbers
- Vermont’s only Catholic diocese previously settled 67 lawsuits related to clergy abuse claims for approximately $34.5 million, and an additional 118 confidential claims were filed after the diocese sought bankruptcy protection in 2024.
- Pennsylvania enacted a major mandated-reporter training law in 2012 following the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State, requiring school employees with direct contact with children to receive formal training.
- California expanded its mandated-reporter definition to cover certain school volunteers, governing board members, and private school employees effective July 1, 2026, and separately added talent agents, managers, and coaches working with minors under a law enacted in 2025.
- South Dakota’s legislature approved a measure requiring any coach of a school activity to be a mandated reporter, signed into law in March by Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden — even as a separate clergy-reporting bill failed in committee.
- Connecticut this month passed legislation making paid municipal youth camp directors, assistant directors, and staff members 21 or older mandatory reporters.
Zoom Out
The debate reflects a broader national reckoning over institutional accountability and child protection. The Penn State scandal — which resulted in the 2012 conviction of former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky on charges of sexually abusing young boys — is widely credited with accelerating mandatory-reporter reform in Pennsylvania and influencing similar conversations in other states. The Catholic Church’s decades-long handling of clergy abuse allegations has similarly fueled legislative pressure to close what critics call reporting loopholes in religious settings.
Chris Motz, senior counsel with First Liberty Institute, a religious freedom legal organization, said the Washington state litigation offers a cautionary precedent for other legislatures. “The lesson for state legislators is going to be that they have to respect long-standing religious rights, while balancing the important interests in safeguarding children,” Motz said.
Michael Halcomb, an ordained minister and assistant professor at Montreat College in North Carolina, argued that if abusers know their disclosures to clergy will be reported, they may avoid seeking help entirely — driving abuse further underground. He suggested that reporting obligations should focus on anyone with unsupervised authority over minors, regardless of whether they serve in a religious capacity.
What’s Next
Pending bills in New York and Vermont would extend clergy reporting requirements, though both face significant legal and political obstacles given the Washington state precedent. Vermont’s proposal also seeks to repeal the state’s existing confession exemption entirely, a more aggressive approach that is likely to face First Amendment challenges if enacted.
As states debate the outer boundaries of mandated reporting, child safety advocates and law enforcement trainers continue to push for broader cultural shifts within institutions. Beth Sanborn, a retired Pennsylvania officer now coordinating school safety training in Montgomery County, emphasized that mandated reporting does not require certainty — only a reasonable concern. “The school resource officer gets to see one facet of a kid’s behavior,” Sanborn said. “The coach gets to see another. The guidance counselor sees another.”
The patchwork of state-level action underscores a continued federal absence on uniform child-reporting standards — leaving states to navigate competing constitutional, institutional, and child welfare interests on their own.