PA Act 31 Mandated Reporter Training: Duties and Penalties

Pennsylvania’s Act 31 is a 2014 law that makes certain professionals and other adults mandated reporters of suspected child abuse and ties approved training on recognizing and reporting abuse to professional licensure. If you hold a health-related license in Pennsylvania or work with children in a regularly scheduled program, Act 31 almost certainly applies to you, and it carries criminal penalties for willful failure to report.

Who Counts as a Mandated Reporter

Act 31 significantly expanded the categories of adults legally required to report suspected child abuse under the Child Protective Services Law (CPSL). You are a mandated reporter if you fall into any of the following groups:

Anyone licensed or certified to practice in a health-related field under the Department of State
Medical examiners, coroners, and funeral directors
Employees of a healthcare facility licensed by the Department of Health who are involved in admitting, examining, or treating patients
School employees
Employees of child-care services with direct contact with children
Clergy, including priests, rabbis, ministers, Christian Science practitioners, religious healers, and spiritual leaders of established religious organizations
Paid or unpaid individuals who are part of a regularly scheduled program, activity, or service and have direct contact with children or responsibility for a child’s welfare
Social services employees with direct contact with children
Law enforcement officers and peace officers
Emergency medical services providers certified by the Department of Health
Public library employees with direct contact with children
Anyone supervised by a mandated reporter who has direct contact with children
Independent contractors with direct contact with children
Attorneys affiliated with an organization responsible for the care, supervision, or control of children
Foster parents
Adult family members providing services to a child in a family living home, community home for individuals with intellectual disabilities, or host home for children¹

The list reaches people who might not think of themselves as mandated reporters. A volunteer coach, a library clerk, an independent contractor at a school — each falls under the law if the direct-contact test is met.

Training You Must Complete

Act 31 created a training mandate tied directly to professional licensing, with different requirements for initial licensure and renewal.

Initial Licensure

Anyone applying for a license or certificate from a health-related board or the State Board of Funeral Directors must complete three hours of training on child abuse recognition and reporting, approved by the Department of Human Services (DHS). Completing the training is a condition of receiving the license. The State Board of Veterinary Medicine is exempt because veterinarians do not typically treat children.²

License Renewal

All health-related licensees and funeral directors must complete at least two hours of board-approved continuing education on child abuse recognition and reporting each renewal cycle. This requirement took effect with the first renewal period after January 1, 2015.³

Other roles outside the licensing system, including foster parents and employees of children’s organizations, may need to complete three hours of DHS-approved training every five years.

Where to Take It

Both DHS and the Department of State maintain lists of approved training providers. The Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Pittsburgh offers a free three-hour online course that satisfies both initial licensure and continuing education requirements.⁴

Use an approved provider. A course from an unapproved source will not count toward your requirement, even if the content is similar. Approved providers submit records electronically to the Department of State’s Pennsylvania Licensing System (PALS), but keep your own certificate of completion in case of any discrepancy.²

When You Must Report

You must report when you have reasonable cause to suspect a child is being abused. You do not need to confirm anything. You are not asked to investigate.

The CPSL defines child abuse broadly. It covers intentional, knowing, or reckless conduct that causes or creates a likelihood of bodily injury, sexual abuse or exploitation, serious mental injury, or serious physical neglect; specific dangerous acts such as kicking, biting, burning, unreasonable restraint, or forcefully shaking a child under one year old; fabricating medical symptoms; leaving a child with a registered sex offender or where methamphetamine is being manufactured; trafficking; and causing the death of a child.⁵

How to File Your Report

Call ChildLine, Pennsylvania’s 24-hour child abuse hotline, at 1-800-932-0313. You can also submit a written report electronically as your initial report. Within 48 hours of an oral report, you must follow up with a written report through the Child Welfare Information Solution (CWIS) portal or by completing the CY-47 form. If the written follow-up is not submitted, the county agency is still required to act on the oral report.⁶

Include what you know: the child’s name and age, the name of the suspected abuser, the nature and extent of the suspected abuse, and your own name and contact information. Partial information is far better than no report. If a child is in immediate danger, call 911 first.

One safe harbor: reporting to law enforcement or directly to the county agency instead of calling ChildLine does not count as a failure to report, as long as the report was made in a good-faith effort to comply with the law.

Protections If You Report in Good Faith

Anyone who makes a good-faith report of suspected child abuse is immune from civil and criminal liability. That protection covers the initial report, cooperating with the investigation, providing information to a child fatality review team, and testifying in related court proceedings.⁷

The law presumes good faith. If your report is later challenged in a civil or criminal proceeding, the court presumes you acted in good faith, and the burden falls on the other side to prove otherwise. The presumption applies to all mandated reporters and to anyone making a referral to law enforcement under the CPSL.

Pennsylvania law also prohibits intimidation, retaliation, or obstruction related to a child abuse investigation. An employer who punishes you for reporting faces separate charges under the state’s criminal code.¹

Penalties for Failing to Report

A mandated reporter who willfully fails to report suspected child abuse commits a crime. The baseline offense is a misdemeanor of the second degree, and the grading escalates with the severity of the underlying abuse and the reporter’s conduct:

Standard failure to report: misdemeanor of the second degree.
Failure to report when the underlying abuse is a first-degree felony or higher and the reporter has direct knowledge: felony of the third degree.
Ongoing failure to report, meaning you continue not to report while knowing or having reasonable cause to suspect the same person is still abusing a child or still has contact with children: felony of the third degree, or of the second degree if the underlying abuse is a first-degree felony or higher.
Repeat offenders with a prior conviction for failing to report: felony of the third degree, or of the second degree if the underlying abuse is a first-degree felony or higher.

The statute of limitations for a failure-to-report charge is either the statute of limitations for the underlying crime against the child or five years, whichever is longer.⁷

Mistaken Reports Versus False Reports

A report that turns out to be unfounded is not a false report. Pennsylvania law penalizes people who intentionally file a report of child abuse knowing it to be false — a misdemeanor of the second degree, or a misdemeanor of the first degree for a person with a prior conviction for false reporting or for failure to report. If you genuinely suspect abuse and report in good faith, the immunity and good-faith presumption apply regardless of what the investigation ultimately finds.⁷

1
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 23 Chapter 63 – Section 6311
2
Department of State. Child Abuse Recognition and Reporting Continuing Education Providers
3
Pennsylvania Department of State. Act 31 of 2014 Frequently Asked Questions
4
PA.gov. Child Abuse Training Approved Providers List
5
The Official Website of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 23 Section 6303 – Definitions
6
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 23 Section 6313 – Reporting Procedure
7
The Official Website of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 23 Chapter 63 – Child Protective Services