Should elected officials be mandated reporters? Bill gets first hearing

“This bill basically just expands mandatory reporters,” said Plummer, former Montgomery County sheriff, during his sponsor testimony.

Those occupations are required to report child abuse or neglect that they either know of or have a “reasonable cause to suspect” — but only if they learn about the neglect while acting in an official or professional capacity. Those professionals risk civil or criminal penalties for failing to report, under the law.

H.B. 371, however, proposes adding elected officials to the list. One caveat is that elected officials would be required to report any abuse or suspected abuse they learned about, whether it was in a professional or personal capacity.

“I believe elected officials should be held to a higher standard. You know, we got elected, people trust us, so when there’s a heinous crime in our communities that’s reported to us, we should have to report also,” Plummer said.

The proposal wants to lay that responsibility on nearly every elected official in the state. It defines qualifying officials as an “elected officer of the state or any political subdivision of the state, other than a member of a central committee of a political party,” which would include state lawmakers, mayors, city and village councils, township trustees, county commissioners, school board members and more.

“My idea here was, (in) smaller communities people come up to your township trustee or your council member and say ‘Hey, something’s going on next door,’ and then they think they did their duty by reporting it to an elected official,” Plummer said. “An elected official may get busy or might not understand the process and fails to report it to the proper criminal justice agencies.”

In an interview following the hearing, Plummer said he felt the committee was “really receptive” to the proposal, including discussion of potentially making elected officials mandatory reporters on any crime, or making every Ohioan a mandatory reporter when it comes to child abuse or neglect.

The most concrete discussion from the committee, however, centered on setting, and ensuring mandatory reporters know, the proper channels to report child abuse or neglect.

“We want to make sure that, if we do pass this, elected officials do know that this type of incident is something that needs to be reported and who to report it to, as well,” said Rep. Darnell T. Brewer, D-Cleveland, before asking if the state could provide instruction to mandatory reporters to ensure better adherence to the law.

“I’m all for that. Various elected officials go through various training standards and protocols,” Plummer said. “...I’m not opposed to that, (I’m open) to whatever the will of the committee is.”

H.B. 371 will need further hearings before it’s passed out of committee, which will give proponents and opponents alike from the public a chance to testify on the bill.