Gov. Evers has vetoed a Republican bill that would have protected children by requiring child welfare officials to refer all reports of “threatened or suspected abuse” to law enforcement.
In his veto message, Evers raised concerns that signing the bill could “triple” the number of abuse reports to police and would increase officials’ workloads. In the Assembly, Democrat governor candidate Fran Hong joined Democrats who voted against the bill. See the full list here. See the Democratic senators who voted against the bill here.
The bill was introduced by Senators Quinn, James and Marklein; it was cosponsored by Representatives Green, B. Jacobson, Piwowarczyk, Brill, Dittrich, Duchow, Goeben, Gundrum, Hurd, Kitchens, Knodl, Kreibich, Maxey, Melotik, Murphy, Novak, Penterman, Petersen, Snyder, Summerfield and Tittl.
“Under current law, certain individuals are required to report suspected child abuse or neglect to the county child welfare department or to the police if the individual has reasonable cause to suspect that a child seen by the individual in the course of professional duties has been abused or neglected or has been threatened with abuse or neglect (mandatory reporter),” the Legislative Reference Bureau explained.
“Generally, if a report is for threatened or suspected child sexual abuse or trafficking, the child welfare department must within 12 hours refer the case to the police. A child welfare department is required to adopt a written policy regarding how it refers to police reports of other forms of threatened or suspected child abuse or neglect, but it is not required by law to refer such cases to police,” the LRB wrote.
The bill vetoed by Evers required “a child welfare department generally to refer to police all reports of threatened or suspected abuse. ‘Abuse’ is defined in current law to include non-accidental physical injuries inflicted on a child, sexual abuse, trafficking, manufacturing methamphetamine in the presence of a child, and emotional damage for which a child’s parent, guardian, or legal custodian has neglected, refused, or been unable for reasons other than poverty to obtain the necessary treatment or take steps to ameliorate the symptoms.”
Additionally, the bill “adds to the list of mandatory reporters an employee of a child welfare department whose duties include direct interaction with children or the handling of child welfare cases and specifies that ‘social worker,’ which is currently on the list of mandatory reporters, means an individual who holds a social worker certificate granted by the Marriage and Family Therapy Professional Counseling, and Social Work Examining Board.”
