New Hampshire's Child-Abuse Reporting Law Is Strong

Keene Sentinel
June 24, 2012

www.sentinelsource.com/opinion/editorial/new-hampshire-s-child-abuse-reporting-law-is-strong/article_5db571a0-0677-5155-a9d9-0781b51dec95.html

Friday's conviction of former Penn State athletics coach Jerry Sandusky was about his sexual abuse of 10 young males during a 15-year period.

But by inference the charges against him also concerned the failure of a system under which more than a few people kept mum on suspicions of abuse during that time — a failure underscored by the virtual flood of abuse-reporting legislation across the country since the charges against the 67-year-old Sandusky were filed last fall.

The National Council of State Legislatures says that so far this year more than 100 bills have been filed in 30 states and the District of Columbia to toughen up rules for reporting suspected abuse of children. In 10 states, new laws have been enacted.

New Hampshire is not among those jurisdictions because, to its credit, its mandatory reporting statute has long been broadly inclusive. Whereas some states, such as Pennsylvania, required practitioners of only certain professions to speak up when they sensed something wrong — among them nurses, clergy members, day care workers, but not athletic coaches — the Granite State since 1979 has required any person who suspects child abuse to go to the authorities.

Now, laws are only as good as their enforcement, as in the conviction of a top-level Catholic church official in Pennsylvania, also Friday, of covering-up for pedophile priests over many years.

And, to be sure, not all reports of suspected child abuse lead to findings of impropriety or illegality. Each year in New Hampshire, about 8,000 cases of suspected abuse and neglect are examined by state child welfare authorities, and only about eight percent of the cases result in actual interventions.

Those numbers could support conclusions that the problem isn't under-reporting of suspected abuse, but the opposite. Still, assuming that child welfare authorities act with discretion in their assessments of cases, the system here seems to be supported by appropriate law, which reads:

"169-C:29 Persons Required to Report. — Any physician, surgeon, county medical examiner, psychiatrist, resident, intern, dentist, osteopath, optometrist, chiropractor, psychologist, therapist, registered nurse, hospital personnel (engaged in admission, examination, care and treatment of persons), Christian Science practitioner, teacher, school official, school nurse, school counselor, social worker, day care worker, any other child or foster care worker, law enforcement official, priest, minister, or rabbi or any other person having reason to suspect that a child has been abused or neglected shall report the same in accordance with this chapter."