What Is CANRA? California’s Mandated Reporting Law

CANRA is the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, a California law codified at Penal Code sections 11164 through 11174.3 that requires certain professionals to report suspected child abuse or neglect to law enforcement or county child welfare authorities.¹ It applies to any child in the state, defined as a person under 18, and it sets a reporting process backed by legal immunity for reporters and criminal penalties for mandated reporters who stay silent.

What Counts as Abuse or Neglect Under CANRA

Penal Code section 11165.6 defines reportable “child abuse or neglect” broadly. It covers non-accidental physical injury, sexual abuse (including sexual assault and sexual exploitation), neglect, willful harming or endangerment, and unlawful corporal punishment that causes injury.² Willful harming includes deliberately causing a child to suffer unjustifiable pain or mental suffering, or placing a child in a situation that endangers their health or safety.³

Two situations are explicitly excluded: mutual fights between minors, and injuries caused by peace officers using reasonable force in the line of duty.²

Neglect comes in two degrees. General neglect is a caregiver’s failure to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or supervision that puts the child at substantial risk of serious harm, even without actual injury. A parent’s economic disadvantage, by itself, is not general neglect. Severe neglect covers failure to protect a child from severe malnutrition or medically diagnosed failure to thrive, and situations where a caregiver deliberately causes or allows the child’s health to be endangered.⁴ The distinction matters because severe neglect can land the accused on the Child Abuse Central Index.

Who Must Report

CANRA does not rely on the general public. The duty falls on specific professionals listed in Penal Code section 11165.7, including:

Teachers, instructional aides, school administrators, and school district police or security staff.
Physicians, surgeons, dentists, nurses, psychologists, optometrists, chiropractors, and other licensed healthcare providers.
Peace officers and probation or parole officers.
Licensed daycare employees, social workers, and community care facility staff.
Clergy, with a narrow exception for penitential communications.

The duty applies whenever a mandated reporter, acting within their professional capacity or scope of employment, knows or reasonably suspects that a child has been abused or neglected.⁵

Volunteers who work directly with children at public or private organizations are generally not mandated reporters. The law encourages training and voluntary reporting but imposes no legal obligation. The one exception is volunteers in Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) programs, who are specifically included on the mandated reporter list.⁶

Clergy are mandated reporters, but a confession or similar communication made in confidence is exempt. To qualify, the communication must be intended as confidential, made to a clergy member authorized to receive it under their faith’s practice, and subject to a duty of secrecy within that tradition.⁵ Anything a clergy member learns in another capacity, such as running a youth program or counseling outside the confessional, falls outside the exception.

Since 2021, under AB 1963, human resources employees and certain supervisors at businesses with five or more employees that also employ minors are mandated reporters. HR employees designated to receive workplace misconduct complaints must report child abuse generally; supervisors’ reporting obligation is limited to sexual abuse. Covered employers must provide training and have each mandated reporter sign an acknowledgment of the duty before starting work.

When the Duty Is Triggered

You do not need proof. The standard is “reasonable suspicion,” meaning a reasonable person in the reporter’s position, drawing on training and experience, would suspect abuse or neglect from the available facts. Certainty is not required, and neither is a medical diagnosis.⁵

The statute specifies that a minor’s pregnancy, standing alone, does not create reasonable suspicion of sexual abuse. It can still be part of a broader picture, but it is not enough on its own.

How to File a Report

CANRA sets a two-step process with a tight deadline.

First, call immediately. The reporter must telephone a local law enforcement agency (police or sheriff) or the county child welfare department as soon as they form the suspicion. This lets authorities act quickly if the child is in danger.

Second, submit a written follow-up report within 36 hours. The standard form is the Suspected Child Abuse Report, Form BCIA 8572, available through the California Department of Justice.⁷ It can be sent by fax, mail, or electronic transmission.⁵

The form asks for the child’s name and location, the parents’ or guardians’ names, a description of the suspected abuse, and any physical signs or statements observed. Be specific about dates, times, what the child said, and what any injuries looked like.⁸ A written report must be filed even if the child has died, regardless of whether the suspected abuse contributed to the death.⁵

Some counties offer electronic submission systems for the written follow-up after the phone call. Availability varies, so check with your local child welfare agency.

Protections for People Who Report

Mandated reporters have absolute immunity from civil and criminal liability for any report required or authorized under CANRA. The immunity applies even if the suspicion arose outside work hours or outside the scope of employment.⁹

Non-mandated reporters who file voluntarily receive qualified immunity. They can be held liable only if the report was knowingly false or made with reckless disregard for the truth. Anyone who deliberately files a false report, mandated or not, is liable for the resulting damages.⁹

If a mandated reporter is sued over a report and the case is dismissed or they win, they can apply to the Department of General Services for reimbursement of attorney’s fees up to $50,000. Reimbursement is not available where a public entity already provided the legal defense.⁹

The identity of a reporter is confidential under Penal Code section 11167. Disclosure is limited to investigating agencies, prosecutors in a related criminal case, counsel appointed in dependency proceedings, licensing agencies investigating out-of-home care, or by court order. An employer cannot learn the identity of a reporting employee without the employee’s consent or a court order.

Penalties for Not Reporting

A mandated reporter who fails to report known or reasonably suspected child abuse or neglect commits a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in county jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both.⁵

Where a mandated reporter intentionally conceals their failure to report an incident they knew to be abuse or severe neglect, the offense is treated as a continuing one. The statute of limitations does not begin to run until an investigating agency discovers the concealment, so staying quiet does not run out the clock.⁵

What Happens After a Report

Reports are investigated by the receiving agency. If the allegation is substantiated, the person accused can be listed on the Child Abuse Central Index (CACI), a statewide database maintained by the California Department of Justice. Only substantiated reports stay on the index; unsubstantiated reports are removed.¹⁰

A CACI listing can surface on background checks for employment, licensing, or volunteer positions involving children. The investigating agency must notify the person in writing that their name has been forwarded to the index.¹¹

Anyone listed on the CACI has the right to request a due process hearing before the submitting agency. The hearing is denied if a court has already found that the abuse occurred, or if the allegation is still pending in court. Once the court’s jurisdiction ends with no finding on the abuse, the person can then request a hearing. If the listed person was under 18 at the time of the report, the listing is automatically deleted after 10 years with no new report during that period.¹⁰ To check whether you are listed, send a notarized written request to the Department of Justice; they will respond with the report date and the submitting agency.

1
California Legislative Information. California Code PEN – Article 2.5 Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act
2
California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 11165.6 – Child Abuse or Neglect Definition
3
California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 11165.3 – Willful Harming or Injuring of a Child
4
California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 11165.2 – Neglect Definition
5
California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 11166 – Mandated Reporter Duty to Report
6
California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 11165.7 – Mandated Reporter Definition
7
California Department of Justice – Office of the Attorney General. Child Abuse Central Index Forms
8
California Department of Justice. Definitions and General Instructions for Completion of Form BCIA 8572
9
California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 11172 – Immunity and Confidentiality
10
California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 11170 – Child Abuse Central Index
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California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 11169 – Reports to Department of Justice