Clergy as Mandatory Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect - North Carolina

The Requirement for Clergy to Report 

Citation: Gen. Stat. § 7B-301

Any person or institution that has cause to suspect that any juvenile is abused, neglected, or has died as the result of maltreatment, shall report the case of that juvenile to the director of the Department of Social Services in the county where the juvenile resides or is found.

Privileged Communications

Citation: Gen. Stat. § 7B-310

No privilege shall be grounds for any person or institution failing to report that a juvenile may have been abused or neglected, even if the knowledge or suspicion is acquired in an official professional capacity, except when the knowledge is gained by an attorney from that attorney's client during representation only in the abuse, neglect, or dependency case.

No privilege, except the attorney-client privilege, shall be grounds for excluding evidence of abuse or neglect in any judicial proceeding (civil, criminal, or juvenile) in which a juvenile's abuse or neglect is an issue nor in any judicial proceeding resulting from a report submitted under this article, both as the privilege relates to the competency of the witness and to the exclusion of confidential communications.