Legislation, Child Maltreatment

Common Topics of Child Maltreatment Legislation

In addition to mandatory reporting laws, state legislation addresses both the confidentiality of child protective services agency records and the need for disclosure or sharing of that information in certain situations (e.g., to aid in multidisciplinary case collaboration or in the event of a child maltreatment related death where public information disclosure may be mandated). The central recordkeeping practices of child protective services agencies, enabling them to access and use these databases when confronted later with new reports of child maltreatment that might involve the same child, family, or alleged perpetrator (frequently referred to as central registries), have been the subject of much legislation, as has the use of that information for other purposes, such as background screening of applicants for childcare work, foster care licenses, adoption, or other situations. More recently, state laws also have addressed when child protective services agency personnel must or can access criminal history (arrest and conviction) information on those adults seeking to become foster or adoptive parents or for use in aiding in the investigation of a report of child maltreatment or the conducting of a safety assessment related to the adults present in the child's home.

Reporting laws, however, also continue to be modified frequently. For example, the listing of those professionals who must report suspected abuse or neglect of a child has continued to expand. Members of the clergy in many states are now mandated reporters, although states vary on whether information received in a confessional situation would be covered. A few states specifically mandate reporting by attorneys, despite the fact that they may have learned of suspected abuse or neglect in the context of a privileged attorney-client relationship. Recognizing the links between child maltreatment and animal cruelty, some state laws now mandate reporting of suspected child maltreatment by animal control or humane officers who may learn such information in the course of their animal protection work. Another issue that is more common than this mandate in child maltreatment statutes is the requirement for cross-reporting to the police or a criminal prosecutor, most typically with reports of serious child maltreatment initially made to child protective services agencies. State legislatures continue to revise definitions of child maltreatment: in many states, expanding the scope of what is considered abuse or neglect of a child (e.g., when children are exposed to severe or repetitive domestic violence that risks subjecting the children to emotional harm or situations involving parental substance abuse), while in fewer states, actually contracting the scope of child abuse or neglect interventions by limiting interventions to serious or recent maltreatment situations. State laws also frequently include criminal penalties for failure to report child maltreatment, and some have penalties for deliberately and falsely reporting abuse or neglect. State criminal laws continue to be regularly modified to enhance penalties for child maltreatment related crimes, to revise the statutes of limitation that have in the past precluded both civil and criminal interventions in cases where child maltreatment occurred many years earlier, and for placing those who commit abuse-related crimes against children on special offender registries.

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