Assemblymember Monica Wallace (D-Lancaster) announced Tuesday that legislation she introduced, the Child Abuse Reporting Expansion (“CARE”) Act (A.6662), passed the Assembly this week. The CARE Act would add clergy members to the list of mandatory reporters of child abuse and maltreatment, closing a loophole that allowed for the proliferation and coverup of child abuse.

Assemblymember Wallace introduced the CARE Act last year, weeks after passage of the Child Victims Act. The Child Victims Act extended the statute of limitations for survivors of child abuse to file civil claims and provided a temporary period during which survivors could file a claim regardless of how long ago the alleged abuse occurred. In the wake of this legislation, plaintiffs filed hundreds of lawsuits accusing hundreds of clergy members of acts of abuse and maltreatment against children and teenagers.

Whereas the Child Victims Act was retrospective in that it sought to right wrongs of past abuse, the CARE Act is prospective and seeks to prevent future abuse from happening in the first place.

“The Child Victims Act was an important first step in bringing abusers to justice and righting the wrongs of the past,” Assemblymember Wallace said. “Now we need to go further and close the loopholes in state law that allowed for the coverup and proliferation of child abuse. This legislation adds clergy of all denominations to the long list of mandatory reporters. By doing so, the CARE Act seeks to prevent the future victimization of children.”

“With this legislation, clergy members join teachers, social workers, counselors, and dozens of other professionals who are obligated to report child abuse and maltreatment,” Assemblymember Wallace continued. “No child should suffer, and no abuser should evade justice, because someone knew but didn’t report an occurrence of one of these horrific crimes.”