What needs to change in Kansas.

• Clergy not enumerated — no duty catch-all either

  K.S.A. § 38-2223(a)(1) lists six closed professional categories of mandated reporters. Clergy, ministers, priests, rabbis, imams, and religious leaders fall within none of them. Unlike some states, Kansas has no "any person who has reason to suspect" formulation that imposes a duty on the general public. The federal Child Welfare Information Gateway's 2023 state-statutes survey explicitly groups Kansas with a small set of jurisdictions — including Iowa, New York, South Dakota, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands — where **neither clergy nor any broadly defined category of persons** are enumerated as mandated reporters. The gap is legislative silence, not a narrowing judicial interpretation.

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• Privilege statute (K.S.A. § 60-429) — no child-abuse carveout; reporting statute silent

  Kansas's penitential communication privilege appears at K.S.A. § 60-429 in the rules of evidence. It protects disclosures made to a minister of religion acting in a professional spiritual-counseling capacity. The statute contains **no exception for child abuse or neglect**. The reporting statute, K.S.A. § 38-2223, does not cross-reference § 60-429 at all — it neither overrides the privilege for reporting purposes nor explicitly preserves it. That mutual silence is the privilegePosture the federal Child Welfare Information Gateway also confirms: "the issue is not addressed in the statutes reviewed." A Kansas federal district court's 2013 decision in U.S. v. Dillard, 989 F.Supp.2d 1155 (D. Kan. 2013), held that formal ordination is not required to invoke the Kansas clergy-penitent privilege, extending its protection to unordained ministers engaged in religious counseling — a development that broadens, rather than narrows, the privilege's reach.

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• HB 2352 (2025-26): House passed overwhelmingly; died in Senate Judiciary

  House Bill 2352, introduced in January 2026 by Reps. Bob Lewis (R-Garden City) and Tobias Schlingensiepen (D-Topeka), would have added "duly ordained minister of religion" to K.S.A. § 38-2223's mandated-reporter list while preserving the penitential communication privilege as an exemption. The House Judiciary Committee reported the bill unanimously on February 6, 2026; **the full House passed it by an overwhelming bipartisan margin on February 19, 2026**. The bill was referred to Senate Judiciary Committee, did not receive a hearing, and died when the 2025-26 session adjourned. HB 2352 is the most recent of several Kansas clergy-reporter efforts spanning the 2019 through 2026 sessions, none yet enacted.

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• Kansas DCF confirms clergy absent from mandated-reporter framework

  The Kansas Department for Children and Families identifies five professional categories that account for mandated reports received under K.S.A. § 38-2223: Day Care, Education, Law Enforcement/Legal, Medical, and Social Services. Clergy and religious institutions do not appear in DCF's operational framework. DCF's March 2025 testimony to the House Committee on Child Welfare and Foster Care (Deputy Secretary Tanya Keys, March 10, 2025) provided the same enumeration without clergy, offering state-agency corroboration for the classification.

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What it takes to close the gap.

How Kansas got here.

• 2021-2023
  Prior-session clergy-reporter bills fail

  Kansas legislators introduced clergy-reporter measures in several sessions before HB 2352. None advanced to enactment, leaving K.S.A. § 38-2223's reporter list unchanged on clergy.

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• 2026-02
  HB 2352 clears House by overwhelming margin — farthest any Kansas clergy bill has reached

  House Judiciary reports HB 2352 unanimously on February 6; the full House passes it on February 19, 2026 by an overwhelming bipartisan margin. The bill includes a penitential-communication exemption and a DCF training requirement. Referred to Senate Judiciary Committee.

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• 2026-05
  HB 2352 dies in Senate Judiciary; session adjourns

  Senate Judiciary Committee holds no hearing on HB 2352. The 2025-26 biennial session adjourns in May 2026 without Senate action, ending the bill. Kansas remains without a clergy mandatory-reporting requirement.

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Public-record sources UCO is tracking.

Always verify against the underlying statute or filing before quoting.

• Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes
  K.S.A. § 38-2223 — Reporting of certain abuse or neglect of children

  Canonical current text of the principal mandatory-reporting statute. Subsection (a)(1) enumerates six closed categories; clergy fall within none. The statute is also silent on the clergy-penitent communications privilege. Last substantively amended L. 2022, ch. 94, § 11.

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• Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes
  K.S.A. § 60-429 — Penitential communication privilege

  Kansas's clergy-penitent privilege statute. Protects penitential communications made to a minister of religion in a professional spiritual-counseling capacity. Contains no carveout for child abuse or neglect. K.S.A. § 38-2223 does not cross-reference this privilege.

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• Kansas State Legislature
  HB 2352 (2025-26 Session) — Requiring a duly ordained minister of religion to report certain abuse and neglect

  Official measure page for House Bill 2352. Bill passed the full House on February 19, 2026; marked Died after no Senate Judiciary action. Would have added 'duly ordained minister of religion' to § 38-2223(a)(1) with a penitential-communication exemption and a DCF training requirement.

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• Child Welfare Information Gateway, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services· 2023
  Clergy as Mandatory Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect (2023 State Statutes Series)

  Federal Children's Bureau survey listing Kansas among jurisdictions where neither clergy nor any broadly defined person is enumerated as a mandated reporter. Also confirms that Kansas does not address the privilege question in the statutes reviewed.

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• Kansas Department for Children and Families
  Child Mandated Reporters — Kansas Department for Children and Families

  DCF public mandated-reporter page enumerating professional categories under K.S.A. § 38-2223. Clergy and religious institutions do not appear.

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• Child Welfare Information Gateway· May 2023
  Clergy as Mandatory Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect — Kansas

  Federal state-specific summary confirming that privileged communications are not addressed in the Kansas statutes reviewed, supporting the silent privilegePosture classification.

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• United States District Court, District of Kansas· 2013
  United States v. Dillard, 989 F.Supp.2d 1155 (D. Kan. 2013)

  Federal district court ruling (Case No. 11-1098-JTM) holding that formal ordination is not required to invoke the Kansas clergy-penitent privilege; protection extends to unordained ministers engaged in religious counseling.

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• Kansas Department for Children and Families· 2025-03-10
  DCF Testimony: Information on Mandated Reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect (March 10, 2025)

  Testimony by Deputy Secretary Tanya Keys to the House Committee on Child Welfare and Foster Care. Enumerates the same six statutory categories under K.S.A. 38-2223(a)(A-F); clergy are not listed.

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• Kansas Reflector· 2023-01-26
  Kansas Democrat introduces Senate bill making clergy mandatory reporters of suspected abuse (Kansas Reflector)

  Documents the multi-session history of Kansas clergy mandatory-reporter legislation (2019 through 2023 efforts) and that no prior bill reached enactment.

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• KWCH / Nexstar Media· 2026-02-24
  Bill to make Kansas clergy mandatory reporters of child abuse passes Kansas House (KWCH)

  Reports the 111-5 House passage of HB 2352 and confirms a four-year run of consecutive advocacy effort, corroborating the multi-session introduction history.

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