Louisiana
La. Ch. Code Art. 603(17)(c) — Louisiana Children's Code — Mandatory Reporter Definitions
- Clergy named as mandatory reporter?
- Yes
- Confessional exemption?
- Yes
- Statute
- La. Ch. Code Art. 603(17)(c)
- Clergy named
- Expressly
- Pending
- —
Louisiana's Children's Code expressly lists clergy as mandatory reporters. Article 603(17)(c) names priests, rabbis, duly ordained clerical deacons or ministers, Christian Science practitioners, and similarly situated functionaries of religious organizations. On the surface, the coverage looks complete. The carve-out is not a separate exception added downstream. It is written into the definition itself. A member of the clergy is not required to report a confidential communication received in the course of religious discipline, provided the clergy member is authorized and accustomed to hearing such communications, and their tradition requires keeping them confidential. The only affirmative obligation in that setting is to encourage the person to report on their own under Article 610. In 2016, the Louisiana Supreme Court resolved a constitutional challenge to this structure by reading Article 603 narrowly. In Mayeux v. Charlet, the Court held that a Roman Catholic priest hearing sacramental confession does not meet the definition of mandatory reporter in the first place. Because the carve-out is built into the definition, the Article 609 privilege-override clause, which otherwise says reporting obligations apply notwithstanding any claim of privilege, never reaches the confessor. The priest is simply not in the category. The Louisiana Legislature has revisited the mandatory-reporter framework in both 2024 and 2025, amending Articles 603 and 610 to update other reporter categories and reporting procedures. Neither session touched the clergy provision. The carve-out in Article 603(17)(c) is not an oversight or an early draft left in by inertia. It has survived repeated legislative review. Louisiana illustrates the pattern UCO tracks in every state where the statute names clergy but preserves a route through which the reporting duty never actually attaches. The specific mechanism varies (a cross-reference, a definitional carve-out, a case holding), but the structural result is the same. No child's voice should go unheard because the law was written to ensure the conversation never officially happened.