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Pennsylvania

Who is mandated to report?

Are all health clinicians mandated to report?

  • Yes.  

Who else is a mandated reporter?

  • Persons certified to practice in any health-related field
  • Employees of licensed health-care facilities who are engages in the admission, examination, care, or treatment of individuals
  • Any person, paid or unpaid, who, on the basis of the person’s role in the program, activity, or service, is a person responsible for the child’s welfare or has direct contact with other children
  • An emergency medical services provider
  • An individual supervised or managed by a person listed above who has direct contact with children

For more information, refer to Mandated Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect at the Child Welfare Information Gateway.

When is the reporting duty triggered?

What is the standard?

  • A mandated reporter shall make a report of suspected child abuse if he or she has reasonable cause to suspect that a child is a victim of child abuse under any of the following circumstances:
    • The mandated reporter comes into contact with the child in the course of employment, occupation, and practice of a profession or through a regularly scheduled program, activity, or service.
    • The mandated reporter is directly responsible for the care, supervision, guidance, or training of the child, or is affiliated with an agency, institution, organization, school, regularly established church or religious organization, or other entity that is directly responsible for the care, supervision, guidance, or training of the child.
    • A person makes a specific disclosure to the mandated reporter that an identifiable child is the victim of child abuse.
    • An individual age 14 or older makes a specific disclosure to the mandated reporter that the individual has committed child abuse.
  • Nothing in this section shall require a child to come before the mandated reporter in order for the mandated reporter to make a report of suspected child abuse. Nothing in this section shall require the mandated reporter to identify the person responsible for the child abuse to make a report of suspected child abuse.

For more information, refer to Mandatory Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect at the Child Welfare Information Gateway.

What must be reported?

How does state law define child abuse and neglect for reporting purposes?

  • Mandated reporters must report child abuse as defined by Pennsylvania statute 6303 and legal guidance interpreting the statute.
    • “Child abuse” shall mean intentionally, knowingly or recklessly doing any of the following:
      • Causing bodily injury to a child through any recent act or failure to act.
      • Fabricating, feigning or intentionally exaggerating or inducing a medical symptom or disease which results in a potentially harmful medical evaluation or treatment to the child through any recent act.
      • Causing or substantially contributing to serious mental injury to a child through any act or failure to act or a series of such acts or failures to act.
      • Causing sexual abuse or exploitation of a child through any act or failure to act.
      • Creating a reasonable likelihood of bodily injury to a child through any recent act or failure to act.
      • Creating a likelihood of sexual abuse or exploitation of a child through any recent act or failure to act.
      • Causing serious physical neglect of a child.
      • Engaging in any of the following recent acts:
        • Kicking, biting, throwing, burning, stabbing or cutting a child in a manner that endangers the child.
        • Unreasonably restraining or confining a child, based on consideration of the method, location or the duration of the restraint or confinement.
        • Forcefully shaking a child under one year of age.
        • Forcefully slapping or otherwise striking a child under one year of age.
        • Interfering with the breathing of a child.
        • Causing a child to be present at a location while a violation of 18 Pa.C.S. § 7508.2 (relating to operation of methamphetamine laboratory) is occurring, provided that the violation is being investigated by law enforcement.
        • Leaving a child unsupervised with an individual, other than the child's parent, who the actor knows or reasonably should have known:
          • Is required to register as a Tier II or Tier III sexual offender under 42 Pa.C.S. Ch. 97 Subch. H (relating to registration of sexual offenders), where the victim of the sexual offense was under 18 years of age when the crime was committed.
          • Has been determined to be a sexually violent predator under 42 Pa.C.S. § 9799.24 (relating to assessments) or any of its predecessors.
          • Has been determined to be a sexually violent delinquent child as defined in 42 Pa.C.S. § 9799.12 (relating to definitions).
          • Has been determined to be a sexually violent predator under 42 Pa.C.S. § 9799.58 (relating to  assessments) or has to register for life under 42 Pa.C.S. § 9799.55(b) (relating to registration).
      • Causing the death of the child through any act or failure to act.
      • Engaging a child in a severe form of trafficking in persons or sex trafficking, as those terms are defined under section 103 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (114 Stat. 1466, 22 U.S.C. § 7102).
      • "Sexual abuse or exploitation"  means any of the following:
      • The employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement or coercion of a child to engage in or assist another individual to engage in sexually explicit conduct, which includes, but is not limited to, the following:
        • Looking at the sexual or other intimate parts of a child or another individual for the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire in any individual.
        • Participating in sexually explicit conversation either in person, by telephone, by computer or by a computer-aided device for the purpose of sexual stimulation or gratification of any individual.
        • Actual or simulated sexual activity or nudity for the purpose of sexual stimulation or gratification of any individual.
        • Actual or simulated sexual activity for the purpose of producing visual depiction, including photographing, videotaping, computer depicting or filming.
        • This paragraph does not include consensual activities between a child who is 14 years of age or older and another person who is 14 years of age or older and whose age is within four years of the child's age.
      • Any of the following offenses committed against a child:
      • "Serious physical neglect” means any of the following when committed by a perpetrator that endangers a child's life or health, threatens a child's well-being, causes bodily injury or impairs a child's health, development or functioning:
      • A repeated, prolonged or egregious failure to supervise a child in a manner that is appropriate considering the child's developmental age and abilities.
      • The failure to provide a child with adequate essentials of life, including food, shelter or medical care.
      • "Serious mental injury."  A psychological condition, as diagnosed by a physician or licensed psychologist, including the refusal of appropriate treatment, that:
        • renders a child chronically and severely anxious, agitated, depressed, socially withdrawn, psychotic or in reasonable fear that the child's life or safety is threatened; or
        • seriously interferes with a child's ability to accomplish age-appropriate developmental and social tasks.
      • Exclusions from child abuse:
        • Environmental factors
        • Practice of religious beliefs
        • Use of force for supervision, control and safety purposes
        • Rights of parents
        • Participation in events that involve physical contact with child
        • Child-on-child contact
        • Defensive force

Are child molestation, sexual abuse, rape, statutory rape, incest, intimate partner violence, sexual exploitation and/or trafficking of a minor reportable as child abuse or neglect and if so, how are they defined and what is reportable?

For the most current definitions of these terms, refer to the Pennsylvania Statutes at the Pennsylvania General Assembly website.

How to report:

What is the method of reporting?

  • An oral report shall be made immediately to the department via the statewide toll-free telephone number under § 6332 or a written report using electronic technologies under § 6305. A mandated reporter making an oral report also shall make a written report, which may be submitted electronically, within 48 hours to the department or county agency assigned to the case in a manner and format prescribed by the department.

For more information, refer to Making and Screening Reports of Child Abuse and Neglect at the Child Welfare Information Gateway.  

What is the timeline in which to report?

  • A report shall be made when a mandated reporter has reason to believe a child may be subjected to abuse and/or neglect.

For more information, refer to Making and Screening Reports of Child Abuse and Neglect or Mandatory Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect at the Child Welfare Information Gateway.  

To whom are reports made?

  • The department shall establish procedures for the secure and confidential use of electronic technologies to transmit information, including the filing of reports and other required records. A confirmation by the department of the receipt of a report of suspected child abuse submitted electronically shall relieve the person making the report of making an additional oral or written report of suspected child abuse.
  • The department shall establish a single statewide toll-free telephone number that all persons, whether mandated by law or not, may use to report cases of suspected child abuse or children allegedly in need of general protective services. A county agency or law enforcement official shall use the statewide toll-free telephone number or electronic technologies for determining the existence of reports of child abuse or general protective services reports in the statewide database or reports under investigation.
  • Each county agency shall receive 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all reports, both oral and written, of suspected child abuse in accordance with this chapter, the county plan for the provision of child protective services, and the regulations of the department.

For more information, refer to Making and Screening Reports of Child Abuse and Neglect at the Child Welfare Information Gateway.  

State/County Hotline?

  • Pennsylvania Department of Human Services
  • Childline
  • 1-800-932-0313
  • You can also report online at the Child Welfare Portal.  

Confidentiality:

What federal confidentiality laws apply to health information collected during a Title X visit?

  • Title X regulations 42 CFR 59.11
  • HIPAA 45 CFR 164.502  

Is there an exception in federal confidentiality law that allows a clinician to comply with mandatory child abuse reporting laws?

  • Yes.