Louisiana Mandated Reporters: Do Not Report to Supervisors First

The Louisiana Attorney General recently issued an opinion that school rules requiring mandated reporters to come to supervisors first violates state law.  Louisiana’s mandated reporter law is both stringent and confusing.  It requires that staff “immediately” report to the Department of Family and Children’s services suspicions of abuse by caretakers, but “immediately” report to law enforcement suspicions of abuse by anyone else.  Another statute specifically prohibits any school board from adopting rules that prevent employees from reporting directly to law enforcement.

I understand the purpose of this rule, because the offending policy gave school superintendents discretion about whether to pass on the mandated report.  Completely prohibiting any notification to supervisors, however, ignores the positive contribution that supervisors can make to a situation.  They can add important context that an individual mandated reporter may not know, and they often can act more quickly than law enforcement to remove a problematic staff member.

For those reasons, we always advise youth organizations to have a rule requiring staff to report concerns to supervisors, and then the two report together to the appropriate authorities.  Louisiana law apparently does not allow that rule, and unfortunately will miss out on much helpful information that supervisors can provide.