April 2013Vol. 14, No. 3States Consider New Child Abuse Laws
Summaries of legislation that would amend existing State child maltreatment laws have been compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Approximately 53 bills in 21 States on the reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect have been introduced so far during the 2013 legislative session, which is nearly three times the number of bills introduced in 2012.
The issues being addressed by these bills include:
- Expanding the types of professionals who are mandated to report cases of suspected child abuse or neglect
- Requiring training for certain professionals on the recognition of child abuse and neglect and the requirement to report
- Imposing or increasing penalties for failure to report
- Imposing or increasing penalties against employers that interfere with employees who try to report
The complete list of pending legislation can be found on the NCSL website: