What needs to change in Indiana.

• All-person reporting duty at § 31-33-5-1

  Indiana uses an any-individual trigger rather than an enumerated professional list. Section 31-33-5-1 requires any individual who has reason to believe that a child is a victim of child abuse or neglect to make a report. Knowing failure to report is a Class B misdemeanor under § 31-33-22-1. Clergy are covered as members of the general public under that all-person duty.

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• Enumerated privilege carveout omits clergy at § 31-32-11-1

  Section 31-32-11-1 lists the privileged communications that are not grounds for failing to report or for excluding evidence in proceedings arising from a report under Chapter 31-33. The list reaches husband-wife, health-care provider-patient, licensed social workers and clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists, mental health counselors, addiction counselors and clinical addiction counselors, school counselor-student, and school psychologist-student communications. **Clergy-penitent is not on the list.** The legislature thus neither expressly preserved nor expressly abrogated the clergy-penitent privilege for reporting purposes. That is the silent posture.

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• General clergy testimonial privilege lives in the evidence code at IC 34-46-3-1

  Indiana's clergy testimonial privilege is codified separately from the reporting title, in the evidence code at IC 34-46-3-1. It provides that clergymen are not required to testify about confessions or admissions made in the course of church discipline, or about confidential communications made in the clergyman's professional character as spiritual adviser or counselor. The provision governs testimony, not the IC 31-33 reporting duty. Whether the privilege can be invoked to refuse a § 31-33-5-1 report has not been resolved on the face of the code.

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• Outcome: HB 1412 enacted as P.L. 168, gap left intact

  HB 1412 was enacted as Public Law 168 on May 1, 2025, effective July 1, 2025. The act provides that staff members of medical institutions must report immediately to both the Department of Child Services and a local law enforcement agency, makes the individual duty to report nondelegable unless the delegee is on the child's care team, adds a new IC 31-33-8.5 requiring law enforcement to investigate whether an institution knew of alleged abuse and failed to report, and increases the penalty for institutional failure to report. The act did not amend § 31-32-11-1. The clergy-penitent omission rides through the 2025 reform untouched.

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What it takes to close the gap.

How Indiana got here.

• 2017
  Institutional reporting pathway eliminated

  Effective July 1, 2017 (P.L. 183-2017), the legislature amended § 31-33-5-2 to require staff members of institutions, schools, facilities, and agencies to report directly to DCS or law enforcement and then notify the individual in charge, eliminating the prior pathway of reporting only up the institutional chain of command. The 2017 amendment did not address the § 31-32-11-1 privilege-carveout list.

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• 2025-05
  HB 1412 enacted as Public Law 168

  Governor signs HB 1412 on May 1, 2025, effective July 1, 2025. The act strengthens institutional reporting (immediate notice to both DCS and law enforcement), makes the individual duty nondelegable, adds a new investigative obligation against institutions that knew of abuse and failed to report, and increases the penalty for staff-member failure to report.

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• 2025-2026
  Privilege carveout list still does not name clergy

  The current Indiana General Assembly bill index for the 2026 session contains no clergy-specific bill addressing the § 31-32-11-1 privilege-carveout list or the IC 34-46-3-1 clergy testimonial privilege. The action-needed posture rests on what the 2025 omnibus chose not to amend.

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Litigation shaping the law.

• Smith v. State

  8 N.E.3d 668 (Ind. 2014)·2014

  The Indiana Supreme Court's controlling decision on the scope of the § 31-33-5-1 reporting duty. A high school principal delayed reporting a student rape allegation by roughly four hours while conducting his own investigation and locker searches. A 3-2 majority reinstated his conviction for failure to report, holding that the statutory word 'immediately' conveys 'a required strong sense of urgency,' that institutional actors carry 'a sterner obligation of intervention,' and that the statute is designed to 'err on the side of overreporting suspected child abuse or neglect.' Smith is not a clergy case, but it is the controlling appellate authority on the universal reporting duty that would govern any future prosecution of a clergy non-reporter.

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Public-record sources UCO is tracking.

Always verify against the underlying statute or filing before quoting.

• Indiana General Assembly
  Indiana Code Title 31, Article 33 — Reporting and Investigation of Child Abuse and Neglect

  Canonical IGA rendering of Title 31, including Article 33. Section 31-33-5-1 imposes the duty on any individual with reason to believe a child is a victim of child abuse or neglect; § 31-33-22-1 makes knowing failure to report a Class B misdemeanor. The IGA URL is JavaScript-rendered; the same URL is cited by Indiana state and Indiana Department of Child Services materials as the official source.

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• Justia· 2025
  Ind. Code § 34-46-3-1 — Persons not required to testify

  Current evidence-code text of Indiana's clergy testimonial privilege. Clergymen are not required to testify about confessions or admissions made in church discipline, or about confidential communications made in the clergyman's professional character as spiritual adviser or counselor. The privilege governs testimony, not the IC 31-33 reporting duty.

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• Church Law & Tax· Verified March 2025
  Child Abuse Reporting Laws for Indiana

  Practitioner summary that quotes § 31-32-11-1 in full, listing the enumerated privileges that are not grounds for failing to report. Clergy-penitent is conspicuously absent from the list, while clergy remain covered by the general all-person reporting duty.

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

  Federal HHS state-statute summary expressly addressing clergy. Confirms Indiana uses the all-person duty under Ann. Code § 31-33-5-1 for clergy and states that on privileged communications 'this issue is not addressed in the statutes reviewed.' That direct federal statement of legislative silence on the clergy-penitent privilege in the reporting context is the primary cross-reference for the silent posture.

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• Indiana General Assembly· 2025
  HB 1412 — Reporting of child abuse or neglect (2025)

  Bill page for the 2025 omnibus reform. Enacted as Public Law 168 on May 1, 2025, effective July 1, 2025. Does not amend § 31-32-11-1. Anchors the action-needed classification: the legislature tightened the duty in every other direction and left the clergy-penitent omission intact.

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