Tennessee Mandatory Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect

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Professionals Required to Report    Citation: Ann. Code §§ 37-1-403; 37-1-605

Persons required to report Child Abuse and Neglect include:

• Physicians, osteopaths, medical examiners, chiropractors, nurses, hospital personnel, or other health or mental health professionals
• Teachers, other school officials or personnel, daycare center workers
• Other professional child care, foster care, residential, or institutional workers
• Social workers
• Practitioners who rely solely on spiritual means for healing
• Judges or law enforcement officers
• Neighbors, relatives, or friends
• Authority figures at community facilities, including any facility used for recreation or social assemblies or for educational, religious, social, health, or welfare purposes, including, but not limited to, facilities operated by schools, the Boy or Girl Scouts, the YMCA or YWCA, the Boys and Girls Club, or church or religious organizations
• Other persons  

Reporting by Other Persons  Citation: Ann. Code §§ 37-1-403; 37-1-605

Any person who has knowledge that a child has been harmed by abuse or neglect must report.

Institutional Responsibility to Report  Citation: Ann. Code § 37-1-403

Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit any hospital, clinic, school, or other organization responsible for the care of children from developing a specific procedure for internally tracking, reporting, or otherwise monitoring a report made by a member of the organization's staff, including requiring a member of the organization's staff who makes a report to provide a copy of or notice concerning the report to the organization, so long as the procedure does not inhibit, interfere with, or otherwise affect the duty of a person to make a report as required by law.

Nothing in this section shall prevent staff of a hospital or clinic from gathering sufficient information, as determined by the hospital or clinic, in order to make an appropriate medical diagnosis or to provide and document care that is medically indicated and is needed to determine whether to report an incident as defined in this part. Those activities shall not interfere with nor serve as a substitute for any investigation by law enforcement officials or the department. However, if any hospital, clinic, school, or other organization responsible for the care of children develops a procedure for internally tracking, reporting, or otherwise monitoring a report, the identity of the person who made a report of harm shall be kept confidential.

Standards for Making a Report   Citation: Ann. Code §§ 37-1-403; 37-1-605

A report is required when:

• A person has knowledge that a child has been harmed by abuse or neglect.
• A person is called upon to render aid to any child who is suffering from an injury that reasonably appears to have been caused by abuse.
• A person knows or has reasonable cause to suspect that a child has been sexually abused.
• A physician diagnoses or treats any sexually transmitted disease in a child age 13 or younger or diagnoses pregnancy in an unemancipated minor.

Any school official, personnel, employee, or member of the board of education who is aware of a report or investigation of employee misconduct on the part of any employee of the school system that in any way involves known or alleged child abuse, including, but not limited to, child physical or sexual abuse or neglect, shall immediately upon knowledge of such information notify the Department of Children's Services or law enforcement official of the abuse or alleged abuse.

Privileged Communications   Citation: Ann. Code § 37-1-411

The following privileges may not be claimed:

• Husband-wife
• Psychiatrist-patient or psychologist-patient

Inclusion of Reporter's Name in Report

This subject is not addressed in the TN statutes reviewed for the US DHHS site.

Disclosure of Reporter Identity  Citation: Ann. Code § 37-1-409

Except as may be ordered by the juvenile court, the name of any person reporting child abuse or neglect shall not be released to any person, other than employees of the department or other child protection team members responsible for child protective services, the abuse registry, or the appropriate district attorney general upon subpoena of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, without the written consent of the person reporting.

The reporter's identity shall be irrelevant to any civil proceeding and shall, therefore, not be subject to disclosure by order of any court. This shall not prohibit the issuance of a subpoena to a person reporting child abuse when deemed necessary by the district attorney general or the department to protect a child who is the subject of a report, provided that the fact that the person made the report is not disclosed.