Mandatory Reporting Requirements: Children
Washington

• Any practitioner;
• County coroner or medical examiner;
• Law enforcement officer;
• Professional school personnel;
• Registered or licensed nurse;
• Social service counselor;
• Psychologist;
• Pharmacist;
• Employee of the Department Of Children, Youth, and Families;
• Licensed or certified child care providers and their employees;
• Employee of the Department of Social and Health Services;
• Juvenile probation officer;
• Placement and liaison specialist;
• Responsible living skills program staff;
• HOPE center staff;
• State family and children’s ombuds or any volunteer in the ombuds’ office or
• Host home program;
• Any person, in his or her official supervisory capacity with a nonprofit or for-profit organization, who has reasonable cause to believe that a child has suffered abuse or neglect caused by a person over whom he or she regularly exercises supervisory authority, provided that the person alleged to have caused the abuse or neglect is employed by, contracted by, or volunteers with the organization and coaches, trains, educates, or counsels a child or children or regularly has unsupervised access to a child or children as part of the employment, contract, or voluntary service. (Note: No one shall be required to report under this section when he or she obtains the information solely as a result of a privileged communication);
• Department of corrections personnel who, in the course of their employment, observe offenders or the children with whom the offenders are in contact;
• Any adult who has reasonable cause to believe that a child who resides with them has suffered severe abuse, and is able or capable of making a report;
• Guardians ad litem, including court-appointed special advocates, who in the course of their representation of children in these actions have reasonable cause to believe a child has been abused or neglected; and

• Administrative and academic or athletic department employees, including attorneys employed by the institution, employees working under the supervision or direction of an attorney, and student employees, of institutions of higher education and of private institutions of higher education.
• Mandatory reporting statute was not intended to apply to volunteer counselors who are not professional social service counselors and not acting in their regular course of employment. Doe v. Corp. of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 167 P.3d 1193, 1203 (Wash. App. 2007).

When is a report required?

• Reasonable cause to believe that a child has suffered abuse or neglect.

Where does it go?

• The Department of Children, Youth, and Families
• the local office of the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (information available at:  https://www.dshs.wa.gov/report-abuse-and-neglect);
• The proper law enforcement agency (including military law enforcement, if appropriate).

• “Abuse or neglect” means sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, female genital mutilation, or injury of a child by any person under circumstances which cause harm to the child’s health, welfare, or safety, except for reasonable and moderate physical discipline inflicted by a parent, teacher, or guardian for purposes of restraining or correcting the child; or the negligent treatment or maltreatment of a child by a person responsible for or providing care to the child.
• “Abused child” means a child who has been subjected to child abuse or neglect.
• “Child” means a person under 18 years of age.
• “Negligent treatment or maltreatment” means an act or a failure to act, or the cumulative effects of a pattern of conduct, behavior, or inaction, that evidences a serious disregard of consequences of such magnitude as to constitute a clear and present danger to a child’s health, welfare, or safety, including, but not limited to, knowingly or intentionally permitting a dependent child or dependent adult to be exposed to, ingest, inhale, or have contact with methamphetamine or ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or anhydrous ammonia, including their salts, isomers, and salts of isomers, that are being used in the manufacture of methamphetamine, including its salts, isomers, and salts of isomers. When considering whether a clear and present danger exists, evidence of a parent’s substance abuse as a contributing factor to negligent treatment or maltreatment shall be given great weight. The fact that siblings share a bedroom is not, in and of itself, negligent treatment or maltreatment.
• Poverty, experiencing homelessness, or exposure to domestic violence that is perpetrated against someone other than the child does not constitute negligent treatment or maltreatment in and of itself.
• “Negligent treatment” does not incorporate a reasonable-person standard into the legal standard required to uphold a finding of neglect or abuse against a parent; a reading of full statute shows a desire by the legislature not to sanction a parent for simple negligence but rather for more serious misconduct. Brown v. Dept. of Social and Health Services, 2015 WL 5881539 (Wash. App. 2015).
• “Reasonable cause” means a person witnesses or receives a credible written or oral report alleging abuse, including sexual contact, or neglect of a child.
• “Severe abuse” means any of the following:
• Any single act of abuse that causes physical trauma of sufficient severity that, if left untreated, could cause death;
• Any single act of sexual abuse that causes significant bleeding, deep bruising, or significant external or internal swelling; or
• More than one act of physical abuse, each of which causes bleeding, deep bruising, significant external or internal swelling, bone fracture, or unconsciousness.
• “Sexual contact” means any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person done for the purpose of gratifying sexual desire of either party or a third party.
• “Sexual exploitation” includes:
• (a) allowing, permitting, or encouraging a child to engage in prostitution by any person; or
• (b) allowing, permitting, encouraging, or engaging in the obscene or pornographic photographing, filming, or depicting of a child by any person.

• Oral report must be made immediately by telephone or otherwise, at the first opportunity, but in no case longer than 48 hours after there is reasonable cause to believe that the child has suffered abuse or neglect. The report must include the identity of the accused, if known.
• Upon request, the oral report must be followed by a written report.
• The reporting requirement does not apply to the discovery of abuse or neglect that occurred during childhood if it is discovered after the child has become an adult. However, if there is reasonable cause to believe other children are or may be at risk of abuse or neglect by the accused, the reporting requirement does apply.
• All employees of institutions of higher education, not considered academic or athletic department employees, who have reasonable cause to believe a child has suffered abuse or neglect, must report such abuse or neglect immediately to the appropriate administrator or supervisor, as designated by the institution. The administrator or supervisor to whom the report was made, if not already a mandatory reporter under RCW 26.44.030, must report the abuse or neglect within forty-eight hours to a mandatory reporter designated by the institution for this purpose.

• The name, address, and age of the child;
• The name and address of the child’s parents, stepparents, guardians or other persons having custody of the child;
• The nature and extent of the alleged injury or injuries;
• The nature and extent of the alleged neglect;
• The nature and extent of the alleged sexual abuse;
• Any evidence of previous injuries, including their nature and extent; and
• Any other information that may be helpful in establishing the cause of the child’s death, injury, or injuries and the identity of the alleged perpetrator or perpetrators.

• Any other person who has reasonable cause to believe that a child has suffered abuse or neglect “may” report such incident to the proper law enforcement agency or Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.
• Immunity: Except for persons convicted of knowingly and in bad faith making a false report, any person participating in good faith in the making of a report pursuant to this chapter or testifying as to alleged child abuse or neglect in a judicial proceeding or otherwise providing information or assistance, including medical evaluations or consultations, in connection with a report, investigation, or legal intervention pursuant to a good faith report of child abuse or neglect shall in so doing be immune from any civil or criminal liability arising out of such reporting or testifying under any law of the State of Washington or its political subdivisions.
• A law enforcement officer may take, or cause to be taken, a child into custody without a court order if there is probable cause to believe that taking the child into custody is necessary to prevent imminent physical harm to the child due to child abuse or neglect, including that which results from sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, a high-potency synthetic opioid, or a pattern of severe neglect, and the child would be seriously injured or could not be taken into custody if it were necessary to first obtain a court order. The law enforcement agency or the department investigating such a report is hereby authorized to photograph such a child for the purpose of providing documentary evidence of the physical condition of the child.
• However, while law enforcement officers owe a duty to investigate with reasonable care to a child who is being abused or neglected when it receives a report concerning the possible occurrence of abuse or neglect of that child, that duty is owed solely to that child and not to any other child who is not the subject of the report of alleged abuse or neglect. R.M. v. King Cnty., No. 87143-9-I, 2025 WL 2104704 (Wash. Ct. App. July 28, 2025).
• Every person who is required to make, or to cause to be made, a report and who knowingly fails to make, or fails to cause to be made, such report shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for a maximum term fixed by the court of up to 364 days, or by a fine in an amount fixed by the court of not more than $5,000 or by both such imprisonment and fine.
• A person who, intentionally and in bad faith, knowingly makes a false report of alleged abuse or neglect shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for a maximum term fixed by the court of not more than ninety days, or by a fine in an amount fixed by the court of not more than one thousand dollars, or by both such imprisonment and fine.
• An administrator of a hospital or similar institution or any physician licensed pursuant to chapters 18.71 or 18.57 RCW taking a child into custody pursuant to RCW 26.44.056 shall not be subject to criminal or civil liability for such taking into custody
• A person who, in good faith and without gross negligence, cooperates in an investigation arising as a result of a report made pursuant to this chapter, shall not be subject to civil liability arising out of his or her cooperation. This subsection does not apply to a person who caused or allowed the child abuse or neglect to occur.

Wash. Rev. Code §§ 5.60.060, 9A.20.021, 26.44.020, 26.44.030, 26.44.040, 26.44.050, 26.44.060, 26.44.080, 28B.10.846, R.M. v. King Cnty., No. 87143-9-I, 2025 WL 2104704 (Wash. Ct. App. July 28, 2025).