Oregon

ORS 419B.010 — Oregon duty of officials to report child abuse

Clergy named as mandatory reporter?: Yes
Confessional exemption?: Yes

THE GAP

Oregon names clergy as mandatory reporters, then preserves a privilege that goes further than most: when a church imposes absolute secrecy, the clergy member cannot be questioned about the communication even if the penitent consents. The religious institution itself decides when consent stops mattering. The law that strips other professional privileges in child-abuse court proceedings does not reach the clergy privilege at all, so the privilege holds at the reporting stage and again in court. A 2022 review found no reform attempt in the prior decade. The state needs to remove the privilege for child-abuse disclosures altogether: not just the piece that lets a church override the survivor's consent, but the ordinary privilege that shields such a confession on its own, at the reporting stage and in court.

Statute: ORS 419B.010
Clergy named: Expressly
Pending: —

Oregon law expressly lists clergy as mandatory reporters of child abuse, and a failure to report is a Class A violation, with no requirement that the failure be knowing. The same subsection that imposes that duty also carves out any communication a clergy member receives that is privileged under Oregon's clergy-penitent privilege rule. That privilege rule goes further. It lets a religious institution impose absolute secrecy through its own discipline, and the privilege then holds even when the person who made the communication has given consent. The privilege does not give way in court either. The statute that strips other professional privileges in child-abuse proceedings reaches only the privileges created in ORS 40.230 to 40.255, and the clergy-penitent privilege at ORS 40.260 sits one section outside that range. A 2022 Associated Press review found no relevant Oregon reform attempt in the prior decade. Closing that kind of standing exemption is the work UCO is pushing for, state by state.

Section 01What needs to change

What needs to change in Oregon.

The current statute leaves a gap between what the law requires on paper and what survivor-protection demands in practice:

Clergy expressly named, with the exemption in the same subsection
ORS 419B.005(6)(h) includes 'member of the clergy' within the definition of 'public or private official.' ORS 419B.010(1) imposes the immediate-report duty on those officials, then carves out psychiatrists, psychologists, members of the clergy, attorneys, and guardians ad litem when 'the communication is privileged under ORS 40.225 to 40.295 or 419B.234(6).' The duty and the exemption live in the same operative subsection.
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Rule 506 lets church discipline override even the penitent's consent
ORS 40.260, Evidence Rule 506, defines the clergy-penitent privilege incorporated by the reporting carve-out. Rule 506(2) bars examination about confidential clergy communications absent the communicant's consent. **Rule 506(3) goes further**: where the discipline or tenets of the clergy member's religious institution impose an absolute duty of secrecy, the clergy member may not be examined even when consent is given. The institution gets to define when consent does not matter.
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ORS 419B.040 does not reach the clergy privilege at all
ORS 419B.040(1) sets aside only 'the privileges created in ORS 40.230 to 40.255' as grounds for excluding evidence of a child's abuse in a judicial proceeding arising from a report, and its list names the psychotherapist-patient, physician-patient, nurse, school-staff, regulated-social-worker, and spousal privileges. **The clergy-penitent privilege is ORS 40.260, one section outside that range, and it appears nowhere in the statute.** In State v. Wixom, 275 Or App 824, 366 P3d 353 (2015), the Court of Appeals read the provision's subject matter as 'limited to specific evidentiary privileges, those created in OEC 504 to 505.' So the clergy privilege is not displaced even in the judicial proceeding a mandatory report produces. The exemption is broader than a narrow trial-evidence reading would suggest, not narrower.
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A 2022 review found no Oregon reform attempt in the prior decade
A September 2022 Associated Press investigation surveyed clergy-privilege exemptions across 33 states and reported that Oregon had seen no relevant bills aimed at narrowing or repealing the clergy-penitent exception in mandatory reporting over the prior decade. It is the most recent published cross-state review UCO has identified. The statute remains settled-on-paper.
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Section 02What's needed

What it takes to close the gap.

From Oregon's law as it stands today to the standard UCO is working toward, every adult who learns a child is being harmed has to report it:

ORS 419B.010 names clergy as reporters and makes a failure to report a Class A violation, then carves the duty back out for clergy-penitent communications. Under ORS 40.260, Evidence Rule 506(3), an institution that writes absolute secrecy into its discipline keeps the privilege even after the speaker consents: the institution, not the survivor, decides when consent stops counting. The reform is to strike the reporting carveout and to defeat Oregon Evidence Rule 506 as a whole, not only its subsection (3), for knowledge of child abuse. Subsection (3) is the institution-controlled secrecy provision, but the ordinary consent-gated privilege in subsection (2) shields a disclosure on its own, and in Oregon's own flagship case *State v. Cox* the communication was the defendant's confession, which subsection (2) protects without any help from (3). Barring only (3) would leave that channel open.

Section 03How you can help

Concrete ways to support reform in Oregon.

Donate

Donate.

Donations fund Oregon-specific research, coalition outreach, and the long work of closing the ORS 40.260 clergy privilege for child-abuse disclosures, not just its absolute-secrecy provision, at the reporting stage and in court.

Mission supportDonate→

Section 04Timeline

How Oregon got here.

1987
State v. Cox applies the privilege in a rape prosecution
The Oregon Court of Appeals reverses a first-degree rape conviction because the trial court admitted a confession protected by the clergy-penitent privilege under ORS 40.260.
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2015
State v. Wixom confines ORS 419B.040 to the OEC 504 to 505 privileges
The Court of Appeals reads ORS 419B.040 as limited to the privileges created in ORS 40.230 to 40.255 and declines to compel pretrial discovery of juvenile dependency records. The decision says nothing about the clergy-penitent privilege, which sits at ORS 40.260, outside the statute's reach.
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2022
AP review finds no Oregon reform attempts in the prior decade
A nationwide Associated Press investigation reports that Oregon had no relevant bills over the prior decade challenging the clergy-penitent privilege in mandatory reporting. The exemption sits undisturbed.
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2025
State v. Dahlin narrows the privilege where confidentiality intent is missing
The Oregon Court of Appeals holds that a letter on a church computer is not protected because the defendant did not intend it to remain confidential. The privilege turns on confidentiality intent, not the church setting.
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Section 05Key cases

Litigation shaping the law.

State v. Cox
87 Or App 443, 742 P2d 694 (1987)1987
The Oregon Court of Appeals reversed a first-degree rape conviction after the trial court admitted the defendant's confession to a clergyman who was also serving as a marriage counselor. The court held the communication was protected by the clergy-penitent privilege codified at ORS 40.260. The case is the leading Oregon example of the privilege blocking a confession from a child-sexual-abuse-related prosecution.
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State v. Dahlin
339 Or App 736 (2025)2025
The Oregon Court of Appeals held that a letter found on a church computer was not protected by the clergy-penitent privilege because the circumstances showed the defendant did not intend the letter to remain confidential. Dahlin reaffirms that ORS 40.260 turns on confidentiality intent: where that intent is missing, the privilege does not attach, even when the communication runs through a church setting.
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Section 06Background

Public-record sources UCO is tracking.

Always verify against the underlying statute or filing before quoting.

Oregon State Legislature· 2025 Edition
ORS Chapter 419B — Abuse Reporting (current text of 419B.005 and 419B.010)
Canonical legislature rendering of the principal statute. ORS 419B.005(6)(h) enumerates 'member of the clergy' within the definition of 'public or private official.' ORS 419B.010(1) imposes the immediate-report duty and preserves the clergy-penitent carve-out for communications privileged under ORS 40.225 to 40.295 or 419B.234(6). ORS 419B.010(5) makes a failure to report a Class A violation, with no knowledge element; ORS 419B.010(3) makes the duty personal to the official.
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Oregon State Legislature· 2025 Edition
ORS 40.260 — Rule 506. Member of clergy-penitent privilege
Canonical rendering of the clergy-penitent privilege incorporated by reference into the reporting carve-out at ORS 419B.010(1). Rule 506(1)(b) defines 'member of the clergy.' Rule 506(2) bars examination as to confidential communications absent consent. Rule 506(3) bars examination even with consent when the clergy member has an absolute duty of secrecy under church discipline.
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oregon.public.law
ORS 419B.010 — Duty of officials to report child abuse; exceptions; penalty
Annotated mirror of the principal statute with cross-references. Confirms the privileged-communications carve-out and the Class A violation penalty. Useful as a cross-validation rendering for the legislature source.
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Child Welfare Information Gateway, U.S. HHS Children's Bureau· 2023
Clergy as Mandatory Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect — Oregon
Federal state-by-state catalog citing ORS 419B.005 and 419B.010. Confirms that Oregon both expressly names clergy as mandated reporters and preserves the clergy-penitent privilege exception in the reporting statute itself.
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Associated Press / Northwest Public Broadcasting· September 29, 2022
33 states, including Washington, Idaho, Oregon, exempt clergy from reporting abuse
Nationwide AP investigation documenting clergy-penitent exemptions in mandatory-reporting statutes across 33 states. Places Oregon in the category of states with no relevant reform bill in the prior decade, anchoring the action-needed urgency tier rather than active-push or recent-attempt.
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Oregon Court of Appeals via Justia· 2015
State v. Wixom, 275 Or App 824, 366 P3d 353 (2015)
Court of Appeals decision construing ORS 419B.040; primary case record confirming the citation. Annotated under ORS 419B.040.
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Other states

Last reviewed July 22, 2026 · by Unheard Child Org research teamHow we track this