SB 382

This bill expands the types of child abuse that a member of the clergy is required

to report and eliminates from the reporting requirement the exception for

information obtained through confidential communications.

Current law requires a member of the clergy who has reasonable cause to

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

victim of sexual assault, sexual exploitation, indecent exposure, or sex trafficking;

has been caused to view or listen to sexual activity; or has been permitted, allowed,

or encouraged to engage in prostitution (collectively, sexual abuse), or that such a

child has been threatened with sexual abuse and that sexual abuse will likely occur,

to immediately report that suspected or threatened sexual abuse to certain county

or state agencies or a law enforcement agency. This bill expands this reporting

requirement to include physical abuse, not only sexual abuse. Current law similarly

requires a member of the clergy who has reasonable cause to suspect that a member

of the clergy has sexually abused a child, or that a member of the clergy has

threatened to sexually abuse a child and that sexual abuse of the child will likely

occur, to immediately report that suspected or threatened sexual abuse to the

appropriate county or state agency or a law enforcement agency. This bill expands

this reporting requirement to include physical abuse, not only sexual abuse.

Current law provides that a member of the clergy is not required to report

information relating to suspected or threatened sexual abuse of a child that he or she

receives solely through confidential communications made to him or her privately or

in a confessional setting if he or she is authorized to hear or is accustomed to hearing

such communications and if, under the disciplines, tenets, or traditions of his or her

religion, he or she has a duty or is expected to keep those communications secret. The

bill eliminates from the reporting requirement the exception for information

obtained through confidential communications.