The Overview

Teachers, nurses, counselors and other Arizona workers who see firsthand that a child is being abused or neglected must now report it to the state themselves, instead of passing it to a supervisor or co-worker. The rule took effect Saturday, Sept. 12, with an exception for hospital and clinic staff who need to keep treating patients. Failing to report remains a crime under existing state law, and police handling reports from schools can no longer be directed by the school’s own resource officer. ​

Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) signed Senate Bill 1127 on June 19. Sen. Carine Werner (R) wrote it after leading a legislative investigation into failures at the Department of Child Safety that followed the deaths of several children known to the state’s child welfare system, according to Senate Republicans. In one case, 10-year-old Rebekah Baptiste died after severe abuse even though school officials had flagged warning signs more than once.

What The Law Does

Anyone already required to report abuse or neglect who has direct knowledge of it must report it immediately and cannot hand the job to someone else. Health care workers may pass a report to a designated colleague when that lets them keep caring for patients or meet their professional standards of care, and they only have to file one report for the same facts.

At schools, a police investigation of a reported case may not be supervised, managed or directed by a school resource officer or school safety officer. Telling one of those officers still does not count as making the required report. Failing to report is a class 1 misdemeanor, and a class 6 felony when the case involves serious offenses such as child sex trafficking.

The Debate

The Senate first passed the bill 27-0 in February. The House voted it down 5-50 on June 2, then reconsidered it, amended it and passed it 35-21 on June 12, and the Senate gave final approval 23-6 the same day.

“In each of these cases, people raised concerns, but the system did not move quickly enough,” Werner said of the child deaths behind the bill and the rest of her seven-bill package. She said the bills are “about making sure warning signs are not missed.”

What’s Next

The law puts the duty on the person who saw the abuse, aimed at the delays Werner said happen when responsibility gets passed along. Its exceptions show the limits: hospital staff can still hand off reports to keep treating patients, and telling a school officer alone still falls short of the law.

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AllCiv makes it easy to stay politically informed and involved.

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