After years of debate, Washington governor to act on clergy abuse reporting bill tomorrow

After years of debate, Washington governor to act on clergy abuse reporting bill tomorrow

News Brief by Cassy Benefield  | FāVS News

Gov. Bob Ferguson will take action on controversial Senate Bill 5375 Friday at 10:30 a.m. The bill relates to the duty of clergy to report child abuse or neglect, including within clergy-penitent, privileged conversations.

The bill landed on the governor’s desk April 22. Supporters have been waiting for the bill to pass for three years. Opponents, in general, like the Washington State Catholic Conference, wanted clergy to be added to law as mandated reporters, but they weren’t willing to compromise the clergy-penitent privilege.

In 2023, Sen. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, who introduced the bill three years in a row, came upon a story by InvestigateWest about how Jehovah’s Witnesses used Washington’s lenient clergy mandatory reporting policy to cover up child sexual abuse. 

She discovered that in addition to clergy not being listed as mandated reporters within the law, having been removed in 1975, they were also not required to report child abuse or neglect in their private conversations as clergy.

For two years, Frame’s bill died in the legislature. The first legislative session it died because the clergy-penitent privilege exemption was not covered in the bill. The second session, the bill included a narrowly carved-out exemption for only the Catholic confessional. 

This year’s bill made it through without any exemption. 

Clergy, in the bill “means any regularly licensed, accredited, or ordained minister, priest, or rabbi of any church or religious denomination, whether acting in an individual capacity or as an employee or agent.”

Washington is currently one of five states that do not include clergy in state law as mandatory reporters. If the governor signs the bill as received, Washington will not only add clergy as mandatory reporters, it will join the seven states — New Hampshire, West Virginia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Texas — that deny privilege for confidential communication in cases of child abuse and neglect. Teneessee only denies privilege in cases of child sexual abuse.