Reporting Child Abuse - Federal

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FEDERAL

Under Federal law, certain professionals (including doctors and health care professionals, mental health care professionals, social workers, foster parents, commercial film processors, child care providers, teachers and school officials and law enforcement officers, among others) doing their jobs on Federal land or in a Federally operated facility are required to report known or suspected child abuse as soon as possible to the agency designated by the Attorney General, which is the FBI, except in cases of sexual abuse or serious injury or life threatening neglect, in which case the report is to be made to local law enforcement.

Abuse is defined to include physical or mental injury, sexual abuse or exploitation. begin_of_the_skype_highlighting

To access this section of the US Code in an unofficial format online, follow:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/42/13031.html