Version Date: December 4, 2015
I. Child Abuse and Neglect
A. Wisconsin Statute s. 48.981
Section 48.981, Wis. Stats., makes certain health care providers (including physicians, nurses, counselors, physical therapists and social workers) mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect.
For purposes of reporting child abuse and neglect, a “child” is a person who is less than 18 years of age. Abuse may be physical or sexual:
Health care providers who provide health care services (family planning services, pregnancy testing, obstetrical health care or screening, and STI diagnosis or screening) to a child and persons receiving information about a child who has received healthcare services do not have to report sexual intercourse involving a child unless one of the below exceptions is met:
Exceptions:
Reports should be made to one of the following:
B. Executive Order #54
Mandatory reporters under s. 48.981, Wis. Stats., are not subject to Executive Order #54 (EO #54). Under EO #54, all University of Wisconsin System employees are mandatory reporters of child abuse. For additional information regarding whether something is reportable under EO #54, please contact the UW-Madison Office of Legal Affairs at (608) 263-7400 or go here: http://www.oed.wisc.edu/child-abuse-and-neglect.htm.
II. Title IX
Under Title IX (20 U.S.C. § 1681), a responsible school employee generally must report incidents of sexual violence which they learn of to the school’s Title IX Coordinator or other appropriate school designee. However, per UW-Madison’s Annual Safety Report: “The University [] will not disclose identifiable information about research subjects if prohibited by an NIH-issued Certificate of Confidentiality, HIPAA regulations and state laws pertaining to the privacy of health information, or promises of confidentiality made to research subjects pursuant the federally required consent form and authorization form.”
The Office for Civil Rights (the office charged with Title IX compliance), expects that researchers will inform students who report sexual violence how to get information on filing a Title IX complaint. While this only applies to students experiencing sexual violence, it could include a reported assault that happened off campus or even a long time ago. Researchers should direct such students to our Title IX website which designates our Coordinator and includes information on how to file a complaint: http://www.oed.wisc.edu/title-ix.htm.
III. Elder or Adult-At-Risk Abuse or Neglect
Pursuant to Wisconsin law, health care providers (including nurses, physicians, physician assistants, physical therapists, psychologists, and occupational therapists) may be required to report at-risk individuals when the health care provider suspects that the at-risk individual is being abused or neglected (including self-neglect).
In order to be considered an “adult-at-risk,” a person must: (1) be an adult who has a physical or mental condition that substantially impairs his or her ability to care for his or her needs; and (2) have experienced, is currently experiencing, or is at risk of experiencing abuse, neglect, self-neglect, or financial exploitation. The term “elder adult-at-risk” is defined similarly, but with a key difference: rather than being a person with a physical or mental impairment, an elder adult at risk is any person 60 years old and older who meets the second criterion from the paragraph above.
While the law generally requires health care providers to report cases of abuse that they encounter in their professional practice, there is a narrow exception for when the provider believes that it is not in the person’s best interest to report the abuse. In this case, the law requires that the provider record the reasons that she or he believes that it is not in the at-risk individual’s best interest to report.
Reports should be made to one of the following:
For additional information regarding whether something is reportable, please contact the UW-Madison Office of Legal Affairs at (608) 263-7400.
Keywords | abuse neglect Wisconsin law | Doc ID | 59110 |
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Owner | Travis D. | Group | VCRGE and Graduate School |
Created | 2015-12-21 14:36 CST | Updated | 2017-10-03 11:07 CST |
Sites | VCRGE and Graduate School | ||
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