Mandatory Reporting Requirements: Children
South Carolina

• The following when acting in their professional capacity:
• Physician;
• Nurse;
• Dentist;
• Optometrist;
• Medical examiner;
• Coroner;
• Employee of a county medical examiner’s or coroner’s office;
• Any other medical, emergency medical services, mental health, or allied health professional;
• Member of the clergy (including a Christian Science Practitioner or religious healer);
• clerical or nonclerical religious counselor who charges for services,
• School teacher;
• Counselor;
• Principal;
• Assistant principal;
• School attendance officer;
• Social or public assistance worker;
• Substance abuse treatment staff;
• Childcare worker in a childcare center or foster care facility;
• Foster parent;
• Police or law enforcement officer;
• Juvenile justice worker;
• Undertaker;
• Funeral home director or employee of a funeral home;
• Persons responsible for processing films;
• Computer technician;
• Judge; and
• Volunteer non-attorney guardian ad litem serving on behalf of the South Carolina Guardian Ad Litem Program or on behalf of Richland County CASA.
• Any other person who has reason to believe that a child’s physical or mental health or welfare has been or may be adversely affected by abuse or neglect may, and is encouraged to, report.

When is a report required?

• Reason to believe that a child has been or may be abused or neglected, or has died as the result of child abuse or neglect.

Where does it go?

• Reports may be made orally by telephone or otherwise to the county department of social services (information available at: https://benefitsportal.dss.sc.gov/#/ran/home) or to a law enforcement agency in the county where the child resides or is found.
• If a person required to report cases of suspected child abuse or neglect has reason to believe a child has died as the result of child abuse or neglect, such person must report this information to the appropriate medical examiner or coroner.

• “Child” means a person under 18 years of age.
• “Child abuse or neglect” or “harm” occurs when a parent, guardian or other person responsible for the child’s welfare (i) inflicts or allows to be inflicted upon the child physical or mental injury or engages in acts or omissions which present a substantial risk of physical or mental injury to the child, including injuries sustained as a result of excessive corporal punishment (but excluding corporal punishment or physical discipline which is administered by a parent or person in loco parentis, is perpetrated for the sole purpose of restraining or correcting the child, is reasonable in manner and moderate in degree, has not brought about permanent or lasting damage to the child, and is not reckless or grossly negligent behavior by the parents); (ii) commits or allows to be committed against the child a sexual offense or creates a substantial risk thereof; (iii) fails to supply adequate food, clothing, shelter, education, supervision appropriate to the child’s age or development, or health care (though financially able to do so or offered financial or other reasonable means to do so and the failure to do so has caused or presents a substantial risk of causing physical or mental injury); (iv) abandons the child; (v) encourages, condones or approves the commission of delinquent acts by the child; (vi) commits or allows to be committed against the child female genital mutilation or creates a substantial risk thereof; (vii) has committed abuse or neglect as described in this paragraph such that a child who subsequently becomes part of the person’s household is at substantial risk of one of those forms of abuse or neglect; or a child is a victim of trafficking in persons as defined in Section 16–3–2010, including sex trafficking, regardless of whether the perpetrator is a parent, guardian, or other person responsible for the child’s welfare. Identifying a child as a victim of trafficking in persons does not create a presumption that the parent, guardian, or other individual responsible for the child’s welfare abused, neglected, or harmed the child.
• “Mental injury” means an injury to the intellectual, emotional, or psychological capacity or functioning of a child as evidenced by a discernible and substantial impairment of the child’s ability to function when the existence of that impairment is supported by the opinion of a mental health professional or medical professional.
• “Person responsible for a child’s welfare” means the child’s parent, guardian, foster parent, an operator, employee or caregiver of a public or private residential home, institution, agency or childcare facility or an adult who has assumed the role or responsibility of a parent or guardian for the child, but who does not necessarily have legal custody of the child. A person whose only role is as a caregiver and whose contact is only incidental with a child, such as a babysitter or a person who has only incidental contact but may not be a caretaker, has not assumed the role or responsibility of a parent or guardian.
• “Physical injury” means death or permanent or temporary disfigurement or impairment of any bodily organ or function.

• Timing is not specified in statute.
• Reports may be made orally by telephone or otherwise to the county department of social services or to a law enforcement agency in the county where the child resides or is found.

• Not specified in statute.

• If a person required to report has received information in the person’s professional capacity which gives the person reason to believe that a child’s physical or mental health or welfare has been or may be adversely affected by acts or omissions that would be child abuse or neglect if committed by a parent, guardian, or other person responsible for the child’s welfare, but the reporter believes that the act or omission was committed by a person other than the parent, guardian, or other person responsible for the child’s welfare, the reporter must make a report to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
• A school bus supervisor does not have the statutorily required duty to report allegations or evidence of sexual abuse of a child because school bus supervisors are not among those specifically designated as mandatory reporters (S.C. Atty. Gen. Op. [no number], Jan. 26, 2006) (2006 WL 269610 (S.C.A.G)).
• Mandatory reporters are not precluded from a finding of medical neglect when a parent, exercising his or her religious belief, has sought spiritual or other religious health care for his or her child (S.C. Atty. Gen. Op. No. 93-78, Dec. 6, 1993).
• Any person who knowingly fails to report, or threatens or attempts to intimidate a witness, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $500 fine or imprisonment for up to 6 months, or both.
• A person required or permitted to report or who participates in an investigation or judicial proceedings resulting from the report, acting in good faith, is immune from civil and criminal liability which might otherwise result by reason of these actions. In all such civil or criminal proceedings, good faith is rebuttably presumed. Immunity extends to full disclosure by the person of facts which gave the person reason to believe that the child’s physical or mental health or welfare had been or might be adversely affected by abuse or neglect.

• S.C. Code Ann. §§ 63-7-20, 63-7-310, 63-7-360, 63-7-390, 63-7-410.