Washington
RCW 26.44.030; RCW 5.60.060(3) — Washington mandatory-reporting statute
- Clergy named as mandatory reporter?
- Yes
- Confessional exemption?
- Yes
- Statute
- RCW 26.44.030; RCW 5.60.060(3)
- Clergy named
- Expressly
- Pending
- —
Washington's SB 5375, passed in 2025, added clergy to the mandatory-reporter list with no exemption for privileged communications. This is exactly the kind of state-level reform UCO is pushing for in every state, and the statute is already the model. But in Etienne v. Ferguson a federal court permanently enjoined (blocked) enforcement for confessional disclosures on First Amendment free-exercise grounds, so the duty holds in every other context while the confession loophole stays open. The important thing to understand is that the carveout is a court order, not statutory text: there is no subsection in RCW 26.44.030 to strike, and a bill re-enacting the same duty would draw the same constitutional ruling. The State stipulated to the injunction and agreed not to appeal, so the way back runs through the courts, not the legislature. The one legislative move that is available is defensive: keeping a successor to SB 5665, which would write a permanent 'sacred confidence' exception into the statute itself, from passing.