Florida
Fla. Stat. §§ 39.201, 39.204, 39.205 — Florida mandatory-reporting statute
- Clergy named as mandatory reporter?
- No
- Confessional exemption?
- Yes
- Statute
- Fla. Stat. §§ 39.201, 39.204, 39.205
- Clergy named
- All-person
- Pending
- 2 (CS/SB590)
Florida has one of the broader reporting frameworks in the country. Section 39.201 imposes the duty on any person with reasonable cause to suspect child abuse, abandonment, neglect, sexual abuse, or juvenile sexual abuse, and routes those reports to the 24/7 central abuse hotline operated by the Department of Children and Families. Knowing failure to report is a third-degree felony under § 39.205(1), and schools, colleges, and universities whose administrators knowingly fail to report face institutional fines up to $1 million. The carveout sits one section away from the reporting duty: § 39.204 abrogates spousal and most professional-client privileges in child-abuse matters but expressly preserves attorney-client privilege and the clergy-penitent privilege at § 90.505. The 2026 legislative session is moving CS/SB 590 and its House companion HB 373 to toll the statute of limitations on failure-to-report offenses until law enforcement learns of the violation, targeting institutional concealment. Neither bill touches the § 39.204 carveout itself. Closing that carveout is the work UCO is pushing in Florida and every state where a confession-style privilege sits inside the reporting statute.