Do Arkansas Laws Need To Be Amended To Require Coaches To Report Child Abuse?

My column for Stephens Media on Friday will take a look at whether Arkansas laws need to be tightened up to require coaches to report suspected child abuse. Currently, the Arkansas Child Maltreatment Act designates 30 individuals as “mandated reporters” – meaning they are required to report suspected child maltreatment to the Arkansas Child Abuse Hotline. You can see the full list here, but it does not include coaches.

Obviously, the Penn State scandal highlights the importance of having coaches on this list. According to DHS attorney Lisa McGee, it is possible that a couple of categories – such as teachers and school officials – might include some coaches, but not all of them. For example, little league coaches not associated with a school would not be required to report child abuse, but they may be in one of best positions to pick up on warning signs from their players and parents.

“The attorneys who researched this issue also raised that the vagueness of the two definitions may not properly put people on notice that the person is a mandated reporter,” said McGee. “And, in a criminal prosecution, the defendant could raise that the statute is void for vagueness as a defense. Thus, my legal advice is to promulgate policy and publications on the definitions of ‘teacher’ and ‘school official’ and discuss if we need any legislative changes.”

Four states plus the District of Columbia have coaches listed in some respect on their mandated reporter laws; however, you have to think many states may now revisit whether they should be added.

In fact, Louisiana officials already have made changes to their laws directly related to the Penn State controversy.  Today, Gov. Bobby Jindal issued an executive order that extends mandated reporter rules to anyone working at a public college in Louisiana.  I asked Gov. Beebe’s office if they were considering issuing this type of executive order for Arkansas.

“We’d hope that anyone who witnesses child abuse anywhere in Arkansas wouldn’t need an executive order from the governor to compel them to report it,” said governor’s spokesman Matt DeCample. “We haven’t considered any action to this point in specific response to the developments in Pennsylvania.”

I also hope anyone would report child abuse, but I still think the mandatory reporter laws are a highly important issue that Arkansas should closely examine.  Quite simply, they protect children by increasing the likelihood that the abuse will be reported and stopped.

Make sure and check out my column Friday where I visit with several state legislators about the possibility of amending our mandatory reporter law to include coaches. I’ll update this post to include it when it publishes.

UPDATE – This subject came up today at the state capitol in a joint meeting of the Arkansas Legislature’s Children and Youth Committees. Sen. Missy Irvin chaired the meeting and spoke with me this afternoon.

Irvin said that while this issue of mandatory reporters was not on the agenda, she brought it up because she felt like it is an important issue to discuss in light of the events at Penn State.

“We are going to look at this in committee and make sure the current definition for mandatory reporters is adequate and that the best process is in place to prevent child abuse,” said Irvin.  “Legislators have a megaphone and we need to use it to raise awareness on this issue.”

Irvin said they heard a report from Debbie Roark with the Arkansas State Police’s Crimes Against Children Division about the current mandatory reporter laws in Arkansas.  Irvin agreed that adding coaches to the list of mandatory reporters definitely needs to be looked at and she sees the need for additional rules and regulations or even possibly legislation to make it clear they are included.

Click here to find out more on how to report child abuse in Arkansas.

UPDATE – Here is a link to my column.  It appears clearing up that coaches are mandated reporters will have broad bipartisan support in the state legislature. I visited with Rep. Nate Steel, D-Nashville, a former prosecutor; Rep. Gary Deffenbaugh, R-Van Buren, a retired football coach; and Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Beebe, who sponsored legislation last session that requires teachers to be trained on how to look for signs of child abuse.