Mandatory Reporting Requirements: Children
Iowa

• Every health practitioner who, in the scope of professional practice, examines, attends, or treats a child and who reasonably believes the child has been abused, including a health practitioner who receives information confirming that a child is infected with a sexually transmitted disease. A health practitioner includes:
• Licensed physician and surgeon;
• Osteopathic physician and surgeon;
• Dentist;
• Optometrist;
• Podiatric physician;
• Chiropractor;
• A resident or intern in any of such professions;
• A licensed dental hygienist;
• A registered nurse or licensed practical nurse;
• A physician assistant; and
• A certified emergency medical care provider.
• Any of the following persons who, in the scope of professional practice or their employment responsibilities, examines, attends, counsels, or treats a child and who reasonably believes the child has been abused:
• A social worker;
• An employee or operator of a public or private health care facility (i.e., a residential care facility, a nursing facility, an intermediate care facility for persons with mental illness, or an intermediate care facility for persons with an intellectual disability);
• A certified psychologist;
• A licensed school employee, certified para-educator, holder of a coaching authorization issued by the state, a school employee who is eighteen years of age or older, or an instructor employed by a community college;
• An employee or operator of a licensed child care center, registered child development home, Head Start program, Family Development and Self-Sufficiency Grant Program regulated by the state, or Healthy Opportunities for Parents to Experience Success-Healthy Families Iowa Program;
• An employee or operator of a substance use disorder program or facility licensed by the state;
• An employee of an institution governed by the Department of Human Services of the state (i.e., Glenwood state resource center; Woodward state resource center; mental health institute, Cherokee, Iowa; mental health institute, Independence, Iowa; state training school; or other facilities not attached to the campus of the main institution as program developments require);
• An employee or operator of a juvenile detention or juvenile shelter care facility approved by the state;
• An employee or operator of a child foster care facility under chapter 237;
• An employee or operator of a mental health center;
• A peace officer;
• A counselor or mental health professional (as defined below);
• An employee or operator of a provider of services to children funded under a federally-approved medical assistance home and community-based services waiver;
• An employee, operator, owner, or other person who performs duties for a children’s residential facility certified under chapter 237C; and
• A massage therapist licensed pursuant to chapter 152C.

When is a report required?

• Reasonable belief that a child has suffered abuse, including, in the case of a health practitioner, one who receives information confirming that a child is infected with a sexually transmitted disease.
• If a health practitioner involved in the delivery or care of a newborn or infant discovers in the newborn or infant physical or behavioral symptoms that are consistent with the effects of prenatal drug exposure or a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, the health practitioner shall report such information to the department in a manner prescribed by rule of the department.
• Commercial film and photographic print processors who have knowledge of or observe within their professional capacity or employment, a visual depiction of a minor whom the processor knows or reasonably should know to be under the age of 18 engaged in a listed prohibited sexual act shall report to the county attorney immediately or as soon as possible.

Where does it go?

• Mandatory reports and permissive reports shall be made orally.
• Oral reports shall be made by telephone or otherwise to the Department of Human Services (Child Abuse Hotline 1-800-362-2178). If the person making the report has reason to believe that immediate protection for the child is advisable, that person shall also make an oral report to an appropriate law enforcement agency.
• Permissive reports may be made to the Department of Human Services, the county attorney, or a law enforcement agency.
• The Department of Human Services will notify the appropriate county attorney of the receipt of any report upon its receipt.
• If a report is determined to constitute an allegation of (i) a sexual offense with or to a child pursuant to chapter 709 (sexual abuse), section 726.2 (incest), or section 728.12, subsection 1 (sexual exploitation of a minor), as a result of the acts or omissions of a person other than a person responsible for the care of the child, or (ii) acts or omissions of a person (other than a person responsible for the care of a child) which allow, permit, or encourage the child to engage in acts prohibited pursuant to section 725.1 (prostitution), then the Department of Human Services will refer the report within 72 hours to the appropriate law enforcement agency having jurisdiction to investigate the allegation.
• If the Department of Human Services has reasonable cause to believe that a child under the placement, care, or supervision of the Department of Human Services is, or is at risk of becoming, a sex trafficking victim, it shall refer the child, within 24 hours, to the appropriate law enforcement agency having jurisdiction to investigate the allegation.

• “Child” means any person under the age of 18 years.
• “Child abuse” or “abuse” means:
• Any non-accidental physical injury, or injury which is at variance with the history given of it, suffered by a child as the result of the acts or omissions of a person responsible for the care of the child;
• Any mental injury to a child’s intellectual or psychological capacity as evidenced by an observable and substantial impairment in the child’s ability to function within the child’s normal range of performance and behavior as the result of the acts or omissions of a person responsible for the care of the child, if the impairment is diagnosed and confirmed by a licensed physician or qualified mental health professional as defined in section 622.1;
• The commission of a sexual offense with or to a child pursuant to chapter 709 (sexual abuse), section 726.2 (incest), or section 728.12, subsection1 (sexual exploitation of a minor), as a result of the acts or omissions of the person responsible for the care of the child or of a person who is fourteen years of age or older and resides in a home with the child;
• The failure on the part of a person responsible for the care of a child to provide for the adequate food, shelter, clothing or other care necessary for the child’s health and welfare when financially able to do so or when offered financial or other reasonable means to do so and the failure occurred within five years of a report (Note that for the purposes of this part, failure to provide for the adequate supervision of a child means the person failed to provide proper supervision of a child that a reasonable and prudent person would exercise under similar facts and circumstances and the failure resulted in direct harm or created a risk of harm to the child. Additionally, a parent or guardian legitimately practicing religious beliefs who does not provide specified medical treatment for a child for that reason alone shall not be considered abusing the child, however this provision shall not preclude a court from ordering that medical service be provided to the child where the child’s health requires it.);
• The acts or omissions of a person responsible for the care of a child which allow, permit, or encourage the child to engage in acts prohibited pursuant to section 725.1 (prostitution);
• An illegal drug is present in a child’s body as a direct and foreseeable consequence of the acts or omissions of the person responsible for the care of the child;
• The person responsible for the care of a child, in the presence of the child, as defined in section 232.96A, subsection 16, paragraph “e”, unlawfully uses, possesses, manufactures, cultivates, or distributes a dangerous substance, as defined in section 232.96A, subsection 16, paragraph “f”, or knowingly allows such use, possession, manufacture, cultivation, or distribution by another person in the presence of a child; possesses a product with the intent to use the product as a precursor or an intermediary to a dangerous substance in the presence of a child; or unlawfully uses, possesses, manufactures, cultivates, or distributes a dangerous substance specified in 232.96A, subsection 16, paragraph “f”, subparagraph (1), (2), or (3), in a child’s home, on the premises, or in a motor vehicle located on the premises, and the incident occurred within five years of a report to the department;
• The commission of bestiality in the presence of a minor by a person who resides in a home with a child, as a result of the acts or omissions of a person responsible for the care of the child;
• The person responsible for the care of a child knowingly allowing a person custody or control of, or unsupervised access to a child under the age of fourteen or a child with a physical or mental disability, after knowing the person is required to register or is on the sex offender registry under chapter 692A.  (Note, this section does not apply to (i) a child living with a parent or guardian who is a sex offender required to register or on the sex offender registry under chapter 692A, (ii) a child living with a parent or guardian who is married to and living with a sex offender required to register or on the sex offender registry under chapter 692A, or (iii) a child who is a sex offender required to register or on the sex offender registry under chapter 692A who is living with the child’s parent, guardian, or foster parent and is also living with the child to whom access was allowed.);
• The person responsible for the care of the child has knowingly allowed the child access to obscene material as defined in section 728.1 or has knowingly disseminated or exhibited such material to the child; or
• The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a child for the purpose of commercial sexual activity as defined in section 710A.1.
• “Child foster care” means the provision of parental nurturing, including but not limited to the furnishing of food, lodging, training, education, supervision, treatment, or other care, to a child on a full-time basis by a person, including a relative or fictive kin of the child if the relative or fictive kin is an individual licensee or an approved kinship caregiver, but not including a guardian of the child.
• “Facility” means the personnel, program, physical plant, and equipment of a licensee or approved kinship caregiver, including a single-family home environment in which child foster care is provided.
• “Mental health professional” means a person who:
• Holds at least a master’s degree in a mental health field, including, but not limited to, psychology, counseling, nursing, or social work; or is licensed by the state to practice medicine;
• Holds a license to practice in the appropriate profession; and
• Has at least two years of post-degree experience, supervised by a mental health professional, in assessing mental health problems and needs of individuals used in providing appropriate mental health services for those individuals.
• “Person responsible for the care of a child” means:
• A parent, guardian, or foster parent;
• A relative or any other person with whom the child resides and who assumes care or supervision of the child, without reference to the length of time or continuity of such residence;
• An employee or agent of any public or private facility providing care for a child, including an institution, hospital, health care facility, group home, mental health center, residential treatment center, shelter care facility, detention center, or child care facility;
• Any person providing care for a child, but with whom the child does not reside, without reference to the duration of the care.

• Mandatory reports must be made within 24 hours.  Permissive reports can be made at any time.
• Upon receipt of a report, the Department of Human Services shall immediately make a determination as to whether the report constitutes an allegation of child abuse.
• Within 24 hours of receiving a report (mandatory or permissive), the Department of Human Services will inform the reporter, orally or by other appropriate means, whether or not it has commenced an assessment of the allegation in the report.

• Reports shall contain as much of the following information as possible:
• The names and home address of the child, the child’s parents, or other people believed to be responsible for the child’s care;
• The child’s present whereabouts if not the same as the parents or other person’s home address;
• The child’s age;
• The nature and extent of the child’s injuries, including any evidence of previous injuries;
• The name, age and condition of other children in the same home;
• If the person making the report is a licensed school employee who reasonably believes the person responsible for the injury is also a licensed school employee, the identity of the person believed responsible for the injury;
• Any other information which the person making the report believes might be helpful in establishing the cause of the injury to the child, the identity of the person or persons responsible for the injury, or in providing assistance to the child; and
• The name and address of the person making the report.

• The employer or supervisor of a person who is a mandatory or permissive reporter shall not apply a policy, work rule, or other requirement that interferes with the person making a report of child abuse.
• If the Department of Human Services determines a report constitutes a child abuse allegation, the department shall promptly commence either a child abuse assessment within 24 hours of receiving the report or a family assessment within 72 hours of receiving the report (depending on the nature of the alleged abuse).  The department, within five working days of commencing the assessment, shall provide written notification of the assessment to the child’s parents. If a parent is alleged to have committed the child abuse, the notice shall inform the parents regarding the complaint or allegation made regarding the parent.
• A person participating in good faith in the making of a report, photographs, or X-rays, or in the performance of a medically relevant test pursuant to this chapter, or aiding and assisting in an assessment of a child abuse report, shall have immunity from any liability, civil or criminal, which might otherwise be incurred or imposed. The person shall have the same immunity with respect to participation in good faith in any judicial proceeding resulting from the report or relating to the subject matter of the report.
• An employer shall not take retaliatory action against an employee as a reprisal for the employee’s participation in good faith in making a report, photograph, or X-ray, or in the performance of a medically relevant test pursuant to this chapter, or aiding and assisting in an assessment of a child abuse report pursuant to section 232.71B. This section does not apply to a disclosure of information that is prohibited by statute.
• Any person, official, agency, or institution required by this chapter to report a suspected case of child abuse who knowingly and willfully fails to do so is guilty of a simple misdemeanor.
• Any person, official, agency, or institution required by section 232.69 to report a suspected case of child abuse who knowingly fails to do so or who knowingly interferes with the making of such a report in violation of section 232.70 is civilly liable for the damages proximately caused by such failure or interference.
• A person who reports or causes to be reported to the department false information regarding an alleged act of child abuse, knowing that the information is false or that the act did not occur, commits a simple misdemeanor.
• A person who is required to report suspected child abuse may take or perform, or may cause to be taken or performed, at public expense, photographs, X rays, physical assessments, or other tests of a child which would provide medical indication of allegations arising from an assessment.  A health practitioner may, if medically indicated, cause to be performed a radiological examination, physical assessment, or other test of the child. A person who takes any such photographs or X rays or performs any such physical assessments or other tests shall notify the department that the photographs or X rays have been taken or the physical assessments or other tests have been performed, and shall retain the photographs, X rays, or physical assessment or other test findings for a reasonable time following the notification. Whenever a member of the staff of a medical or other private or public institution, agency or facility (in their capacity as such) is a mandatory reporting person, that person shall immediately notify the person in charge of the institution, agency, or facility or that person’s designated delegate of the need for photographs, X rays, physical assessments or other tests
• If a health practitioner discovers in a child physical or behavioral symptoms of the effects of exposure to cocaine, heroin, amphetamine, methamphetamine, or other illegal drugs, or combinations or derivatives thereof, which were not prescribed by a health practitioner, or if the health practitioner has determined through examination of the natural mother of the child that the child was exposed in utero, the health practitioner may perform or cause to be performed a medically relevant test, as defined in section 232.73, on the child. The practitioner shall report any positive results of such a test on the child to the department. A positive test result obtained prior to the birth of a child shall not be used for the criminal prosecution of a parent for acts and omissions resulting in intrauterine exposure of the child to an illegal drug.
• A commercial film or photographic print processor who has knowledge of or observes within the processor’s professional capacity or employment, a visual depiction of a minor whom the processor knows or reasonably should know to be under the age of 18 engaged in a listed prohibited sexual act and who fails to report is guilty of a simple misdemeanor.

Iowa Code §§ 232.68, 232.69, 232.70, 232.73, 232.73A, 232.75., 232.77, 728.14