What needs to change in Alaska.

• AS 47.17.020(a) enumerates nine categories and clergy is not among them

  The principal mandatory-reporting statute lists practitioners of the healing arts, school teachers and administrative staff, peace officers and Department of Corrections officers, administrative officers of institutions, child care providers, paid employees of domestic violence and sexual assault and crisis intervention programs, paid employees of substance-use counseling organizations, members of child fatality and multidisciplinary child protection review teams, and certain school volunteers. Clergy as a category does not appear. The Alaska Office of Children's Services 'Who must report' page mirrors the statute's roster.

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• Federal HHS survey classifies Alaska as 'not expressly' covering clergy

  The Child Welfare Information Gateway's 2023 national summary places Alaska in the small group of jurisdictions where neither clergy nor any other enumerated mandated-reporter category reaches clergy as such, and where any-person reporting language does not pick up the gap. This is the strongest cross-jurisdictional confirmation that the gap in Alaska is the gap on the page — the statute's silence, not a court's narrowing read of it.

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• Permissive reporting under AS 47.17.020(b) is not a mandate

  Subsection (b) provides that the statute does not prohibit any other person from reporting suspected child harm. The permissive option leaves nonlisted persons, including clergy who do not independently satisfy a listed role, outside the mandatory-reporter list. A reporter who is free to call is not the same as a reporter who must call, and the duty-bearing line in Alaska currently stops short of clergy as a class.

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• Privilege-abrogation in the child-protection chapter names two privileges and skips clergy

  The Alaska Office of Children's Services law-links page reproduces AS 47.17.060, which overrides the physician-patient and husband-wife privileges as grounds for excluding evidence in proceedings related to child-protection reports. The clergy-penitent privilege recognized at Alaska Rule of Evidence 506 is not named. The two adjacent testimonial privileges are expressly cleared away; the clergy privilege is not. Practitioner summaries reach the same read.

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• Alaska Rule of Evidence 506 recognizes a broad clergy-communications privilege

  Rule 506 of the Alaska Rules of Evidence defines clergy broadly and recognizes a privilege to refuse to disclose, and to prevent disclosure of, confidential communications made to a member of the clergy in that person's professional character as spiritual adviser. The child-protection chapter does not expressly override Rule 506, leaving the clergy-penitent privilege intact in any judicial proceeding related to a child-protection report.

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• AS 47.17.020(d) is a narrowing faith-healing carveout, not a clergy mandate

  Subsection (d) provides that the section does not require a religious healing practitioner to report as neglect a child's lack of medical attention when the child receives treatment solely by spiritual means through prayer in accordance with the tenets and practices of a recognized church or religious denomination by an accredited practitioner. This is the one religiously inflected provision in the statute, and it narrows reporting rather than expanding clergy coverage. The Child Welfare Information Gateway's Alaska page reaches the same characterization.

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• Last serious legislative attempt was HB 92 in 2003-2004

  HB 92 in the 23rd Legislature would have inserted clergy members at AS 47.17.020(a)(9) and would have added a new AS 47.17.021 addressing penitential communications. The bill moved through committee substitutes in House Health, Education and Social Services and House Judiciary, and the official bill history shows the measure's last action in the Senate Health, Education and Social Services committee on April 29, 2003. The bill did not become law, and AS 47.17.020 still does not enumerate clergy. The action-needed framing is anchored here: Alaska's legislature has considered the question and let it sit for more than two decades.

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What it takes to close the gap.

How Alaska got here.

• 2003-2004
  HB 92 introduced and stopped in committee

  HB 92 in the 23rd Legislature would have added clergy members to AS 47.17.020(a) and added a new AS 47.17.021 on penitential communications. The bill moved through House HES and Judiciary committee substitutes and stopped in the Senate Health, Education and Social Services committee on April 29, 2003. It did not become law.

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• 2023
  Federal HHS survey confirms Alaska's 'not expressly' status

  The Child Welfare Information Gateway's May 2023 50-state summary groups Alaska with the small set of jurisdictions where neither clergy nor an any-person mandate reaches clergy as mandated reporters.

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• 2024
  Practitioner summaries continue to read AS 47.17.060 as silent on clergy

  Practitioner-oriented summaries restate that AS 47.17.060 reaches only the physician-patient and husband-wife privileges in child-protection proceedings, leaving the clergy-penitent privilege under Alaska Rule of Evidence 506 intact.

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• 2026
  AS 47.17.020 remains silent on clergy

  AS 47.17.020 continues to omit clergy from its enumerated mandated-reporter list and does not address the clergy-penitent privilege. The statutory silence first tested by HB 92 in 2003 remains the operative posture.

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Public-record sources UCO is tracking.

Always verify against the underlying statute or filing before quoting.

• Alaska State Legislature· 2024
  Alaska Statutes AS 47.17.020 — Persons required to report

  Official Alaska Legislature rendering of the principal mandatory-reporting statute. Subsection (a) enumerates nine categories of mandated reporters; clergy is not among them. Subsection (b) is the permissive any-other-person provision. Subsection (d) contains the faith-healing carveout for religious healing practitioners providing prayer-only treatment.

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• Justia US Law· 2024
  2024 Alaska Statutes — Title 47, Chapter 17, Section 47.17.020 (Justia mirror)

  Independent secondary rendering of AS 47.17.020. Useful cross-check against the akleg.gov source; reflects the same nine enumerated reporter categories, the (b) permissive provision, and the (d) faith-healing exemption.

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• Alaska Department of Family and Community Services, Office of Children's Services
  Who must report? All of us — Alaska Office of Children's Services

  State child-welfare agency page identifying mandated reporters under AS 47.17.020. The agency's roster mirrors the statute's nine categories and does not include clergy as a class; the only religious role identified is religious healing practitioners, folded into the healing-arts subsection.

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• Alaska Department of Family and Community Services, Office of Children's Services
  State of Alaska Law Links — Chapter 47.17 Child Protection

  Agency law-links page reproducing AS 47.17.020's enumerated-reporter list and AS 47.17.060's privilege provision. AS 47.17.060 overrides only the physician-patient and husband-wife privileges in child-protection proceedings and is silent on clergy-penitent communications.

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• Child Welfare Information Gateway, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau· May 2023
  Clergy as Mandatory Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect: Summary of State Laws (2023)

  Federal HHS Children's Bureau 50-state survey current through May 2023. Categorizes Alaska in the small group of jurisdictions where neither clergy nor an any-person enumeration reaches clergy as mandated reporters. Authoritative secondary cross-reference for the statusBucket classification.

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• Child Welfare Information Gateway, Children's Bureau / HHS· May 2023
  Clergy as Mandatory Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect — Alaska

  State-specific page in the federal Child Welfare Information Gateway series. Cites AS 47.17.020 and notes that clergy-privileged communications are not addressed in the statutes reviewed, supporting the silent privilege posture.

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• Alaska Court System
  Alaska Rules of Evidence, Rule 506 — Communications to Clergymen

  Rule 506 defines clergy broadly and recognizes a privilege to refuse to disclose, and to prevent disclosure of, confidential communications made to a member of the clergy acting as spiritual adviser. The child-protection chapter does not expressly override this privilege.

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• Church Law & Tax· Updated March 2025
  Child Abuse Reporting Laws for Alaska

  Practitioner-oriented summary of Alaska's reporting regime. Restates that the privilege-abrogation provision at AS 47.17.060 reaches only the physician-patient and husband-wife privileges, leaving the clergy-penitent privilege at Alaska Rule of Evidence 506 intact. Secondary corroboration for the silent privilege posture and action-needed framing.

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• Alaska State Legislature· 2003-2004
  HB 92 (23rd Alaska Legislature) — An Act relating to reports by members of the clergy

  Full text of the 2003-2004 bill that would have added clergy members as paragraph (9) of AS 47.17.020(a) and added a new AS 47.17.021 carving out penitential communications. The bill moved through House committee substitutes but did not become law; clergy remain absent from current AS 47.17.020.

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• Alaska State Legislature· 2003-2004
  HB 92 Bill History/Action — Clergy to Report Child Abuse

  Official bill-history page for HB 92 in the 23rd Legislature. Last recorded action is the Senate Health, Education and Social Services committee on April 29, 2003. Anchors the action-needed urgency tier: the legislature has considered adding clergy to the reporter list and has not done so in more than twenty years.

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