AB 1030

This bill requires professionals who must report suspected child abuse and

neglect under current law to also report to a law enforcement agency a reasonable

suspicion that a person intends to commit an act of violence involving a dangerous

weapon or explosive in or targeting a school.

Current law requires certain professionals to report suspected abuse and

neglect of children if he or she has reasonable cause to suspect that a child seen in

the course of his or her professional duties has been abused or neglected or has reason

to believe that a child seen in the course of his or her professional duties has been

threatened with abuse or neglect and that abuse or neglect will occur. The report

must be made immediately, by telephone or personally, to the county department of

human services or social services or, in Milwaukee County, the Department of

Children and Families or a licensed child welfare agency under contract with DCF

or the sheriff or city, village, or town police department. Under current law,

mandated reporters are subject to criminal penalties if they fail to report, but are

immune from any civil or criminal liability that results by reason of a good faith

report.

This bill requires the same professionals who are mandated reporters under

current law to immediately inform, by telephone or personally, a law enforcement

agency if the mandated reporter has reasonable cause to suspect that a person seen

in the course of professional duties intends to commit an act of violence involving a

dangerous weapon or explosive in or targeting a public, private, or tribal elementary

or secondary school. The bill imposes the same penalties and provides the same

immunity from liability as the current mandatory reporting law. The bill also creates

exemptions from confidentiality requirements and professional privileges for the

reporting required under the bill as are under the current mandatory reporting law.

In addition, current law requires each school board to require every employee

of the school district governed by the school board to receive training provided by the

Department of Public Instruction in identifying children who have been abused or

neglected and in the laws and procedures under the mandatory reporting law. This

bill adds the same training requirement regarding the mandatory reporting of

suspected intent to commit an act of violence involving a dangerous weapon or

explosive in or targeting a school.

The bill also explicitly exempts from the state's requirements for confidentiality

of patient health information and allows the disclosure by a health care provider of

any suspicion of a patient intending to commit an act of violence involving a

dangerous weapon or explosive in or targeting a school. Generally, under current law,

patient health information and mental health treatment records are confidential

and may be released only upon informed written consent of the subject of the

treatment record and in other limited circumstances explicitly described in the law.

Under current law, a health care provider fulfills any duty to warn others by