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H8093AChildren

Human Services - Abused and Neglected Children

This bill requires suspected child abuse or neglect within religious organizations and educational programs to be reported to authorities.

Introduced73 Yea0 Nay2 Not voting
Population
Affected
35
Email Legislator
Introduced Feb 27, 2026Committee House Judiciary

Plain-English Summary

This bill updates the state's child abuse and neglect reporting laws. It expands the mandatory reporting requirements to include physical, mental, and sexual abuse or neglect occurring within religious organizations, not just educational programs. It requires anyone who suspects abuse by an employee, contractor, clergy member, or volunteer of these organizations to report it to the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) and local or state police within 24 hours. The bill also mandates that DCYF share these reports with law enforcement, child advocacy centers, and the Attorney General's office.

For younger readers

This new rule says that if someone thinks a child is being hurt or not taken care of at a school, camp, or a place of worship like a church, they must tell the police and child protectors right away. It makes sure that leaders, teachers, and volunteers at these places are watched carefully to keep kids safe. When a report is made, different police and safety groups have to share the information with each other so they can look into it and help the child.

Who & Where It Applies

Impacted groups
ChildrenClergy members and religious organization volunteersSchool and educational program employeesParents and guardiansLaw enforcement and child welfare workers
Impacted communities
All

Constitutional & Fiscal Check

None Likely. While expanding mandatory reporting to religious organizations touches upon the First Amendment's free exercise clause, courts have consistently held that neutral laws of general applicability protecting children from abuse do not violate religious freedoms. The requirement to report suspected abuse does not inherently violate due process or protection from unreasonable searches, provided subsequent investigations adhere to constitutional standards.

Estimated cost
Amount unknown
Estimated revenue
None

Bill Analysis

Both viewpoints
For Progressives
  • Expands protections for vulnerable children by mandating the reporting of abuse and neglect within religious organizations, addressing systemic loopholes that have historically shielded abusive clergy.
  • Broadens the scope of mandatory reporting to include physical and mental abuse, not just sexual abuse, ensuring a more comprehensive approach to child welfare and safety.
  • Improves systemic transparency and accountability by requiring child protection agencies to share abuse reports with the Attorney General, state police, and child advocacy centers to ensure thorough investigations.
  • Increased mandatory reporting to law enforcement might lead to the over-policing of marginalized communities, potentially criminalizing families experiencing poverty-related neglect.
  • The broad definition of "mental injury" could lead to subjective interpretations by mandated reporters, disproportionately impacting parents from minority or low-income backgrounds.
  • Relying heavily on the criminal justice system to handle abuse reports may divert focus and resources away from restorative, community-based family support services.
For Conservatives
  • Strengthens law and order by ensuring that all allegations of child abuse are immediately reported to local and state police forces for prompt criminal investigation.
  • Empowers parents by explicitly requiring that they be notified if the state substantiates allegations of abuse or neglect against their child.
  • Provides clear, objective definitions of "reasonable cause" for reporting, helping to protect individuals and organizations from frivolous or entirely baseless accusations.
  • Imposes heavy state regulations and oversight onto private religious organizations, potentially infringing upon their autonomy and religious freedoms.
  • Expands the size and reach of government agencies like the Department of Children, Youth and Families by broadening the scope of what must be investigated.
  • The inclusion of "mental injury" as a reportable offense is vague and could lead to government overreach into private family matters or traditional disciplinary practices.

Votes

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Full Bill Text

2 versions
Changes to existing Rhode Island law · 57 additions · 6 deletions

It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

SECTION 1. Sections 40-11-2 and 40-11-3.3 of the General Laws in Chapter 40-11 entitled "Abused and Neglected Children" are hereby amended to read as follows: 40-11-2. Definitions. When used in this chapter and unless the specific context indicates otherwise:

(1) “Abused or neglected child” means a child whose physical or mental health or welfare is harmed, or threatened with harm, when his or her parent or other person responsible for his or her welfare:

(i) Inflicts, or allows to be inflicted, upon the child physical or mental injury, including excessive corporal punishment; or

(ii) Creates, or allows to be created, a substantial risk of physical or mental injury to the child, including excessive corporal punishment; or

(iii) Commits, or allows to be committed, against the child an act of sexual abuse; or

(iv) Fails to supply the child with adequate food, clothing, shelter, or medical care, though financially able to do so or offered financial or other reasonable means to do so; or

(v) Fails to provide the child with a minimum degree of care or proper supervision or guardianship because of his or her unwillingness or inability to do so by situations or conditions such as, but not limited to: social problems, mental incompetency, or the use of a drug, drugs, or alcohol to the extent that the parent or other person responsible for the child’s welfare loses his or her ability or is unwilling to properly care for the child; or

(vi) Abandons or deserts the child; or

(vii) Sexually exploits the child in that the person allows, permits, or encourages the child to engage in prostitution as defined by the provisions in § 11-34.1-1 et seq., entitled “Commercial Sexual Activity”; or

(viii) Sexually exploits the child in that the person allows, permits, encourages, or engages in the obscene or pornographic photographing, filming, or depiction of the child in a setting that, taken as a whole, suggests to the average person that the child is about to engage in, or has engaged in, any sexual act, or that depicts any such child under eighteen (18) years of age performing sodomy, oral copulation, sexual intercourse, masturbation, or bestiality; or

(ix) Commits, or allows to be committed, any sexual offense against the child as sexual offenses are defined by the provisions of chapter 37 of title 11, entitled “Sexual Assault,” as amended; or

(x) Commits, or allows to be committed, against any child an act involving sexual penetration or sexual contact if the child is under fifteen (15) years of age; or if the child is fifteen

(15) years or older, and (1) Force or coercion is used by the perpetrator, or (2) The perpetrator knows, or has reason to know, that the victim is a severely impaired person as defined by the provisions of § 11-5-11, or physically helpless as defined by the provisions of § 11-37-1(6).

(2) “Child” means a person under the age of eighteen (18).

(3) “Child protective investigator” means an employee of the department charged with responsibility for investigating complaints and referrals of child abuse and neglect and institutional child abuse and neglect.

(4) “Children’s advocacy center (CAC)” means a community-based organization that is a member of the Rhode Island chapter of children advocacy centers and an accredited member (or working toward accreditation) of the National Children’s Alliance.

(5) “Department” means department of children, youth and families.

(6) “Educational program” means any public, charter, or private school, including boarding schools, parochial schools, or any home-schooling home school or after-school program, camp, youth group, scouting organization, tutoring program, or any other program that provides extracurricular, educational, athletic, artistic, behavioral, developmental, religious or other enrichment activities to children.

(7) “Healthcare provider” means any provider of healthcare services involved in the delivery or care of infants or care of children.

(8) “Institution” means any private or public hospital or other facility providing medical or psychiatric diagnosis, treatment, and care.

(9) “Institutional child abuse and neglect” means situations of known or suspected child abuse or neglect where the person allegedly responsible for the abuse or neglect is a foster parent or the employee of a public or private residential childcare institution or agency; or any staff person providing out-of-home care or situations where the suspected abuse or neglect occurs as a result of the institution’s practices, policies, or conditions.

(10) “Law enforcement agency” means the police department in any city or town or the state police.

(11) “Mental injury” includes a state of substantially diminished psychological or intellectual functioning in relation to, but not limited to, such factors as: failure to thrive; ability to think or reason; control of aggressive or self-destructive impulses; acting-out or misbehavior, including incorrigibility, ungovernability, or habitual truancy; provided, however, that the injury must be clearly attributable to the unwillingness or inability of the parent or other person responsible for the child’s welfare to exercise a minimum degree of care toward the child.

(12) “Person responsible for child’s welfare” means the child’s parent; guardian; any individual, eighteen (18) years of age or older, who resides in the home of a parent or guardian and has unsupervised access to a child; foster parent; an employee of a public or private residential home or facility; or any staff person providing out-of-home care (out-of-home care means child day care to include family day care, group day care, and center-based day care). Provided, further, that an individual, eighteen (18) years of age or older, who resides in the home of a parent or guardian and has unsupervised access to the child, shall not have the right to consent to the removal and examination of the child for the purposes of § 40-11-6.

(13) “Physician” means any licensed doctor of medicine, licensed osteopathic physician, and any physician, intern, or resident of an institution as defined in subsection (8).

(14) “Probable cause” means facts and circumstances based upon as accurate and reliable information as possible that would justify a reasonable person to suspect that a child is abused or neglected. The facts and circumstances may include evidence of an injury, or injuries, and the statements of a person worthy of belief, even if there is no present evidence of injury.

(15) “Religious organization” means any church, congregation, or faith-based organization of any denomination or affiliated entity or association of one or more priests, ministers, rabbis, imams, or any other members of the clergy.

(16) “Shaken-baby syndrome” means a form of abusive head trauma, characterized by a constellation of symptoms caused by other than accidental traumatic injury resulting from the violent shaking of or impact upon an infant or young child’s head. 40-11-3.3. Duty to report — Sexual abuse of a child in an educational program. Duty to report – Abuse or neglect of a child in or by an educational program or religious organization.

(a) Any person who has reasonable cause to know or suspect that any child has been the victim of physical, mental, or sexual abuse or neglect by an employee, agent, contractor, member of the clergy, or volunteer of an educational program as defined in § 40-11-2 or a religious organization shall, within twenty-four (24) hours, transfer that information report directly to the department of children, youth and families, or its agent and to the police department in the city or town where the educational program or religious organization is located, or to the Rhode Island state police; provided, however, that if the person mandated to report is an employee, agent, contractor, or volunteer of an educational program or religious organization as defined in § 40-11- 2, they shall immediately notify the principal, headmaster, executive director, or other person in charge of the educational program or religious organization, or his or her designated agent. The principal, headmaster, executive director, or other person in charge of the educational program or religious organization, or his or her designated agent, shall be responsible for all subsequent notification to law enforcement and to the department of children, youth and families, or its agent in the manner required by this section. In the case of a public educational program, the principal, headmaster, executive director, or other person in charge of the educational program, or his or her designated agent, shall also notify the superintendent of the public educational program. Any transferred information shall include the name, title, and contact information for every employee, agent, contractor, or volunteer of the educational program or religious organization who is believed to have direct knowledge of the allegation. Nothing in this section is intended to require more than one report from any educational program or religious organization for a specific incident.

(b) In order to provide guidance and consistency in reporting, the commissioner of elementary and secondary education shall promulgate policies and procedures for the creation and handling of reports made by the principal, headmaster, executive director, or other person in charge of the educational program, or his or her designated agent, in order to carry out the intent of this section.

(c) The department of children, youth and families, or its agent shall immediately forward the report to state police, and local law enforcement, and the child advocacy center, and the department of the attorney general. The department of children, youth and families, or its agent, shall initiate an investigation of the allegations of physical, mental, or sexual abuse or neglect, if it determines that the report meets the criteria for a child protective services investigation. As a result of those reports and referrals, the department shall refer those children to appropriate services and support systems in order to provide for their health and welfare. In the event the department substantiates the allegations of physical, mental, or sexual abuse or neglect against an employee, agent, contractor, or volunteer of an educational program or religious organization, the department shall immediately notify the state police; the local law enforcement agency; the department of the attorney general; the department of education; the educational program or religious organization; the person who is the subject of the investigation; and the parent, or parents, of the child who is alleged to be the victim of the physical, mental, or sexual abuse or neglect of the department’s findings.

(d) The director of the department of children, youth and families is authorized to promulgate rules and regulations pertaining to the investigation of the allegation of physical, mental, or sexual abuse or neglect, in order to carry out the intent of this section.

(e) For purposes of this section, “reasonable cause to know or suspect” means that it is objectively reasonable for a person to entertain a suspicion, based upon facts that could cause a reasonable person in a like position, drawing, when appropriate, on the person’s training and experience, to suspect child physical, mental, or sexual abuse or neglect. “Reasonable cause to know or suspect” does not require certainty that child physical, mental, or sexual abuse or neglect has occurred, nor does it require a specific medical indication of child physical, mental, or sexual abuse or neglect; any “reasonable cause to know or suspect” is sufficient.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.