The Minnesota Supreme Court has held recently that Minnesota’s mandated reporting laws apply to disclosures about minors who are now adults. The particular facts involved a disclosure from a client to a therapist during an intake session. The client revealed that he had engaged in sexual contact with his children’s babysitter when she was 17…
Indiana’s governor recently signed an amendment to the state’s mandated reporter law. It has two new provisions that youth organizations in the state need to note when it goes into effect on July 1, 2025. The first change is that it specifically restricts the ability report to a supervisor instead of child protective services or…
A story from California illustrates a couple of important principles that youth organizations should follow when dealing with disclosures of long-ago abuse. In this instance, an adult approached the owner of a gymnastics school and told him that one of the instructors, who was her cousin, had sexually abused her when she was a child….
Mandated reporter training often tells people that mandated reporters are immune from suit. That training is not completely accurate, because most statutes only protect good faith reports. To avoid immediate dismissal, a plaintiff’s attorney need only allege that the mandated reporter acted in bad faith. In such cases, the mandated reporter eventually may be exonerated,…
The police investigation into staff at the Rainbow House in Clayton, County, Georgia, offers three important lessons for youth organizations. Police have charged an employee, the son of the director, with sexual abuse of a 15-year-old client at the center. According to police reporter, that employee has confessed to sexual contact with the client. Police…
An interesting study from Israel illustrates one of the core flaws that I have found in mandated reporting laws, which is that the emphasis on shifting the report to law enforcement doesn’t offer sufficient help to either the reporters or the victims. Law enforcement is good at one thing — prosecuting crimes — and it…
One question that I often hear from child care centers is how to respond to sexual play between children. As usual, the question is “it depends.” Some types of sexual play are normal and developmentally appropriate, and warrant nothing more than redirection and teaching about social norms. Other types can be signals of sexual abuse…
I have heard many cautious lawyers and more than one self-proclaimed expert claim that elementary school teachers and child care workers should never touch their students. These “no-touch” policies have gone so far as to prevent kids from hugging one another on campuses, and even made adults afraid to help kids apply sunscreen or band-aids…
Organizations that work with teenagers face questions of sexual behavior in several different situations. The most common issues that I see are (1) “sexting,” or sending sexually explicit photos to each other, (2) horseplay that turns sexual, and (3) consensual sex. Whether these require a report to authorities or only an internal response depends on…