Maine
22 M.R.S. § 4011-A(1)(A)(27) — Maine mandatory-reporter statute (clergy named; confidential-communications carveout repealed effective July 29, 2026)
- Clergy named as mandatory reporter?
- Yes
- Confessional exemption?
- Yes
- Statute
- 22 M.R.S. § 4011-A(1)(A)(27)
- Clergy named
- Expressly
- Pending
- —
Maine's mandatory-reporter statute names clergy directly. Section 4011-A(1)(A)(27) lists 'a clergy member acquiring the information as a result of clerical professional work' as a mandated reporter, and then qualifies it: 'except for information received during confidential communications.' The duty and its built-in exit are written into the same clause. A second tier of coverage reaches further: § 4011-A(1)(C) sweeps in any person affiliated with a church or religious institution who serves in an administrative capacity or has otherwise assumed a position of trust or responsibility, regardless of compensation. That structure is changing on a fixed date. LD 2105, enacted and signed April 13, 2026 as Public Law 2025 chapter 667, repeals § 4011-A(1)(A) in full, including the clergy enumeration at (1)(A)(27) and its confidential-communications exception, and repeals § 4011-A(1)(C) as well. In their place it enacts § 4011-A(1)(A-1), whose paragraph (13) covers 'a person affiliated with a church or other religious institution, including, but not limited to, a member of the clergy, who serves in an administrative capacity or has otherwise assumed a position of trust or responsibility.' The successor provision carries no confidential-communications exception. Both the repeal and the replacement take effect July 29, 2026. Until that date the paragraphs described above are the operative law; on and after it, the clergy trigger is the merged, role-conditioned one at § 4011-A(1)(A-1)(13). What the reporting statute does not control is the privilege itself. Maine Rule of Evidence 505(b) grants a person the privilege to refuse to disclose, and to prevent any other person from disclosing, a confidential communication made to a member of the clergy acting as a spiritual adviser. The rule defines 'member of the clergy' broadly and defines 'confidential' as a communication made privately and not intended for further disclosure. Chapter 667 does not touch Rule 505. So before July 29, 2026 a clergy member who learns of abuse in a setting Rule 505 covers is not required to report at all; after that date the reporting statute writes no exemption, but the privilege still stands in the evidence code and can still be asserted to keep the same disclosure out of a proceeding. Maine's penalty for knowing non-compliance is a civil forfeiture of not more than $500 under § 4009, a modest enforcement mechanism relative to the scope of the carveout. Chapter 667 repeals § 4009 effective July 29, 2026 and enacts no successor penalty; new § 4011-A(10) preserves a licensing board's authority to act on a violation, and that becomes the only enforcement route the act names. So Maine is about to close the statutory carveout and, on the same day, lose its reporting penalty while the evidentiary privilege survives intact. That combination is part of what UCO's work exists to address, state by state, until every child's voice is heard.