Reporting Child Abuse - Illinois

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Illinois

Under Illinois law, certain individuals (including doctors and other health care professionals and employees, substance abuse treatment personnel, school personnel and administrators, social workers, domestic violence program personnel, counselors and other mental health professionals, law enforcement officers, day care or child care employees, probation officers and animal control officers, among many others) are required to report any reasonable suspicion of child abuse known to them in their professional capacities by telephone or in person to the Department of Children and Family Services. Any other person in their individual or professional capacities may make a report of any known or suspected child abuse to the Department of Children and Family Services.

Abuse is defined by the statute as inflicting physical injury or death upon a child, creates a substantial risk of physical injury or death for the child, or allows or commits any sex offense against the child, tortures the child, or exploits the child.

end_of_the_skype_highlightingLinks to the specific sections of the official Illinois Code online are not available. The link to the entire mandatory reporting act in the official Illinois Code online is:

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=1460&ChapterID=32

Links to the specific sections summarized above, including definitions, in an unofficial[1] version of the Code online, are available as follows:

http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/ilstatutes/325/5/4

http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/ilstatutes/325/5/3

http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/ilstatutes/325/5/7

For important information on child abuse, neglect, and the Illinois reporting laws, see the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services at:

http://www.state.il.us/dcfs/FAQ/faq_faq_can.shtml

Illinois Child Abuse Hotline: