MONTANA

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WHO:        ANY person MAY report if s/he knows or has reasonable cause to suspect that a child is abused or neglected.  [Code Ann. § 41-3-201(4)]

These are mandatory (MUST report): • Physicians, residents, interns, members of hospital staffs engaged in the admission, examination, care or treatment of persons • Nurses, osteopaths, chiropractors, podiatrists, medical examiners, coroners, dentists, optometrists, or any other health or mental health professionals • Religious healers • School teachers, other school officials, or school employees who work during regular school hours • Social workers, operators or employees of any registered or licensed daycare or substitute care facility, or staff of a resource and referral grant program organized under § 52-2-711 (daycare improvement program) or of a child and adult food care program, or an operator or employee of a child-care facility • Foster care, residential, or institutional workers • Peace officers or other law enforcement officials • Clergy members* • Guardians ad litem or court-appointed advocates authorized to investigate a report of alleged abuse or neglect • An employee of an entity that contracts with the department [DPHHS] to provide direct services to children • An employee of the department [DPHHS] while in conduct of the employee's duties • *Clergy includes: an ordained minister, priest, or rabbi • A commissioned or licensed minister of a church or denomination that ordains ministers if the person has authority to perform substantially all of its religious duties • A member of a religious order who has taken a vow of poverty • A Christian Science practitioner.  [Code Ann. §§ 41-3-201(2); 15-6-201(2)(b)]

·       NOTE: The mandate concerns observations made in the course of work.

·       STANDARD:  [Code Ann. §§ 41-3-102(6); -201(2)-(4)]  Child means under age 18.

(1)     For a mandatory reporter: knows or has reasonable cause to suspect, as a result of information received in his or her professional or official capacity, that a child is abused or neglected, (by anyone regardless of whether the suspected perpetrator is a parent or other person responsible for the child's welfare). 

(2)     Also, for a health-care professional involved in delivery or care of an infant: knows that the infant is affected by a dangerous drug.

(3)     For any other reporter: knows or has reasonable cause to suspect that a child is abused or neglected. 

(4)     Reasonable cause means cause that would lead a reasonable person to believe that child abuse or neglect may have occurred or is occurring, based on all facts and circumstances known to the person.  [Code Ann. § 41-3-102(25)]

·       PRIVILEGE:  Clergy-confidential privilege. But a mandated reporter may not refuse to report based on physician-patient or similar privilege.  [Code Ann. § 41-3-201(6)]

WHEN:      For mandated reporters: PROMPT report.  [Code Ann. § 41-3-201(1)] 

WHERE & HOW: The Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) manages ALL reports 24/7, by hotline only.  [Code Ann. §§ 41-3-201(1),(3); Admin. R. 37.47.302]

·        For a crime: call local law enforcement ASAP, or 911 if danger is imminent. A law enforcement directory is at: https://www.usacops.com/mt/  Then call the hotline.

·        For trafficking: call local law enforcement, the Polaris Project National Hotline at 1-888-3737-888, or text BeFree (233733). For a child, call the DPHHS hotline.  [http://www.dojmt.gov/stopht]

·        DPHHS Child Abuse Hotline:  866-820-5437 toll-free, 24/7.

·        TTY-hearing-impaired Child Abuse Hotline:

o   Dial 711; then when prompted, dial   866-820-5437  

·        Suspicious Death:  Mandated reporters who have reasonable cause to suspect that a child has died as a result of child abuse or neglect must report the suspicion to [the hotline and] the appropriate (county) medical examiner OR local law enforcement officer. Any non-mandatory reporter may do the same.  [Code Ann. § 41-3-206]

o   See directory for M.E.s: https://www.countyoffice.org/mt-medical-coroner/

o   FYI: (406) 728-4970 (State M.E. Offc., Forensic Sci. Div., 2679 Palmer St,, Missoula, MT 59808).

·        DPHHS info is at:  https://dphhs.mt.gov/contact/ 

·        For a K-12 school mandatory reporter booklet, see:

https://dphhs.mt.gov/assets/cfsd/SchoolGuidelinesBooklet.pdf

OTHER ASPECTS

·       REPORT DETAILS: Reports MUST contain: (1) names and addresses of the child and parents or other caretakers; (2) to the extent known, the child’s age and nature and extent of injuries, including any evidence of prior injuries; (3) any other info the reporter believes might help establish the injuries’ cause or show the willful neglect and the identity of person(s) responsible for the injury or neglect; (4) the facts that led the reporter to believe the child suffered injury or willful neglect. [Code Ann. § 41-3-201(7)]

·       REPORTER PROTECTION: (1) The statutes do NOT require a reporter to provide his/her name in the report. (2) The reporter’s identity must not be disclosed in any info released to the subject of the report or family.  [Code Ann. § 41-3-205(3)(d),(h)]  (3) Any reporter is immune from civil and criminal liability unless the report was grossly negligent, in bad faith, malicious, or knowingly false.  [Code Ann. § 41-3-203(1)]

WHY:        Mandatory reporters who fail to report, or prevent others from reasonably doing so, are civilly liable for damages proximately caused (i.e., as a direct result). AND purposely or knowingly failing to make a mandated report is a misdemeanor.  [Code Ann. § 41-3-207] 

WHAT:      Montana defines child abuse or neglect as actual or substantial risk of physical or psychological harm (these include neglect, sexual abuse and sexual exploitation) and abandonment. It includes exposure to dangerous drugs, and includes any form of child sex trafficking or human trafficking. [Code Ann. § 41-3-102(7),(21)]   

Initial Screening Criteria: (a) the type of child abuse or neglect alleged; (b) the level of response required (immediacy & seriousness of harm), and (c) how the report will be classified. Where immediate action is needed, the priorities are: (i) the nature of concerns, (ii) where the child may be located, and (iii) any other information needed to facilitate protection of the child.  [Code Ann. § 41-3-202(1); Admin. R. 37.47.303(1),(3)]

Reportable: (a) persons responsible for the child’s welfare for physical or psychological harm or the risk of it; drug exposure, physical or psychological neglect, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, abandonment, child sex trafficking, or human trafficking; or (b) anyone for drug exposure, child sex trafficking, or human (non-sex labor) trafficking.  [Code Ann. § 41-3-102(7) cf. (7)(b)(i)(A) vs. (7)(b)(i)(B),(C); (21)]  NOTE: acts listed here only for persons responsible for the child’s welfare, may be reportable to police as crimes if done by STRANGERS, such as physical harms or sexual abuse.  

·        Person responsible for a child's welfare is: (a) a parent, guardian, foster parent, or other adult residing in the child’s home; (b) person providing daycare in a facility; (c) employee of a public or private residential institution, facility, home, or agency; or (d) anyone else responsible for him/her in a residential setting.  [Code Ann. § 41-3-102(2)]

Physical or Psychological: Abuse and Neglect: 

(A)     Physical or Psychological Harm includes harm that occurs when a parent or other person responsible for a child's welfare: (a) INFLICTS or allows physical abuse, physical neglect, psychological abuse, or psychological neglect; (b) commits or allows SEXUAL abuse or exploitation of the child; (c) induces (or tries to induce) the child to give UNTRUE testimony about abuse of that child or another by a parent or other person responsible for the child's welfare; (d) causes malnutrition, failure to thrive or otherwise FAILS TO SUPPLY adequate food, clothing, shelter, education, or health care, though able to afford it, or though reasonable means were offered for it; (e) FAILS TO INTERVENE or eliminate an unreasonable risk to the child’s health or welfare; or (f) ABANDONS the child. But it is NOT abuse or neglect if lack of supervision is solely because parents are unable to control the child.  [Code Ann. § 41-3-102(7),(21)]

(1)     CLARIFICATIONS: Abuse or neglect may occur by: (a) any act or omission by someone responsible for the child; OR (b) exposing a child to criminal distribution, manufacture, production, or clandestine laboratory, of dangerous drugs; OR (c) any form of child sex trafficking or human trafficking.

(2)     EQUIVALENT: Child abuse and neglect here is synonymous with "serious emotional or physical damage to the child" in the Indian Child Welfare Act, 25 U.S.C. § 1912(f).

(3)     CAVEAT: Physical and psychological harm does NOT include defense of self or others, or action taken to prevent a child from self-harm.

(B)     Physical abuse is an intentional act, omission, or gross negligence with substantial skin bruising, internal bleeding, substantial injury to skin, subdural hematoma, burns, bone fractures, extreme pain, permanent or temporary disfigurement, impairment of a bodily organ or function, or death.  [Code Ann. § 41-3-102(19)]

(C)     Physical neglect is any of: (a) failure to provide necessities, e.g., appropriate and adequate nutrition, protective shelter, and appropriate clothing for weather conditions; (b) failure to provide cleanliness and general supervision; or (c) exposing or allowing exposure to an unreasonable physical or psychological risk.  [Code Ann. § 41-3-102(20)]

(D)     Medical neglect includes failing to respond to an infant's life-threatening conditions: not providing treatment, such as appropriate nutrition, hydration, or medication, that in the treating physician's or physicians' reasonable medical judgment is most likely to ameliorate or correct the conditions.  [Code Ann. § 41-3-102(32)]

(1)     CAVEAT: this does NOT include cases when the infant is: (a) chronologically or irreversibly comatose and treatment would merely prolong dying, not ameliorate or correct life-threatening conditions, otherwise be futile for the infant’s survival; or (b) the treatment would be futile and inhumane under the circumstances.    

(2)     DEFINITION: Infant means any of: (a) age under 1 year; or (b) hospitalized since birth; or (c) prematurely born child; or (d) child with a long-term disability.

(E)     Psychological Abuse or Neglect means severe maltreatment by acts or omissions that injure a child's emotional, intellectual, or psychological capacity to function, including acts of violence against another person in the home. But it does NOT make the victim responsible for preventing abuse or neglect.  [Code Ann. § 41-3-102(23)]

Sexual Offenses include:  [Code Ann. § 41-3-102(28),(29)]

(A)     Sexual abuse means sexual assault, sexual intercourse without consent, indecent exposure, deviate sexual conduct, ritual abuse, or incest, as in §§ 45-5-xxx. Sexual abuse does NOT include touching of an infant's or toddler's genital area for his/her sanitary or health care heeds by a parent or another responsible for the child's welfare.

(1)     CONTEXT: THE AGE OF CONSENT is 16. A child age 14 or 15 may consent to sexual contact by a partner less than 3 years older. Persons in positions of authority over the child are particularly prohibited to have underage sex with him/her; an exception exists for an underage spouse.  [Code Ann. §§ 45-5-501(1)(a)(ii)(D); 45-5-502(3),(5)(a)(ii)]

(2)     CONTEXT: INCEST is marriage, cohabitation, sexual intercourse, or sexual contact, knowing that the partner is – legitimately or not – one’s: (a) ancestor; (b) descendant; (c) brother or sister of whole or half blood; or (d) any stepchild. These include relationships by blood, adoption, or stepchildren.  A stepchild may consent, but that is ineffective before age 18.  [Code Ann. § 45-5-507(1),(2)]

(B)     Sexual exploitation means allowing, permitting, or encouraging: (a) a child to engage in a prostitution offense; or (b) others to engage in sexual abuse of children; or (c) sexual servitude of the child (where someone recruits, transports, harbors, receives, obtains by any means, isolates, entices, or makes available a child for commercial sexual activity, or patronizes him/her in that).

(C)    [Crossover] psychological harm: harm that occurs when a parent or other person responsible for the child's welfare commits or allows sexual abuse or exploitation.   

Human Trafficking uses (a) force, fraud, or coercion on (b) children or adults for (c) commercial sexual exploitation (prostitution, porn, sex tourism, etc.) or forced labor (housework, factories, construction, migrant farming etc.). It is the world’s second largest criminal industry; has physical, emotional, and sexual abuse; victims rarely get education or healthcare. [Code Ann. § 41-3-102(7)(b)(i)(C); https://dojmt.gov/agooffice/human-trafficking/]

Abandonment is any of the following. Note: psychological harm occurs if a parent or other person responsible for the child's welfare abandons him/her.   [Code Ann. § 41-3-102(1)]

(A)     Leaving a child under circumstances that suggest the parent does not intend to resume care;

(B)     Willfully surrendering physical custody for 6 months and in that time NOT manifesting to the child and person with physical custody, a firm intention to (a) resume physical custody or (b) make legal permanent care arrangements;

(1)     CAVEAT: It is NOT abandonment if a parent voluntarily surrenders a child to the DPHHS solely because of parental inability to access publicly funded services

(C)     The parent is unknown and has been for 90 days, and reasonable efforts to identify and locate the parent failed; OR

(D)    Voluntary surrender by a parent of a newborn no more than 30 days old (§ 40-6-402), to an emergency services provider.