At a prior meeting, the House Family, Children, and Human Affairs Committee heard HB 1412 on reporting of child abuse or neglect, authored by Rep. Cash and Rep. Olthoff. The bill:
- Provides that staff members of a medical institution, a medical facility, or any other health care facility have a duty to report child abuse immediately to both the department of child services and a local law enforcement agency.
- Provides that an individual’s duty to report is nondelegable.
- Requires that if a report alleges that a staff member, youth coach, or volunteer of an institution, school, facility, organization, or agency is the abuser, local law enforcement shall investigate to determine whether the institution, school, facility, organization, or agency knew that the alleged abuse was happening and failed to report the alleged abuse.
- Allows local law enforcement to consider certain facts when determining whether the institution, school, facility, organization, or agency knew about the alleged abuse.
- Raises the penalty for failure to report for certain individuals from a Class B misdeamnor to a Class A misdemeanor.
Testimony in support of the bill was offered by the Children’s Advocacy Center of Southeast Indiana and a member of the public. IU Health and Riley Hospital for Children and a member of the public offered testimony to express their concern with the bill. The Committee amended the bill by consent to provide an exception for individuals in their capacity as staff where a report has already been made and documented and to allow a duty to report to be delegated under certain circumstances. The chair held the bill to hear any concerns with the amendment at the next meeting.
On January 29, 2025, the Committee heard the amended bill. IU Health and Riley Hospital for Children, and the Indiana Association for Education of Young Children testified in support of the amended bill. The amended bill passed 12-0.
Read the bill at: https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2025/bills/house/1412